


i've been out on the ocean, sailing alone

by kat777



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Origin Story, Awkward Crush, Bad Puns, F/M, Flirting, Fluff, Friendship, Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 07:37:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 32,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5777140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kat777/pseuds/kat777
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Marinette finds a pair of earrings on the Winter Solstice, it turns her world upside down. Suddenly she’s a superhero, and it’s her job to protect people from her arch nemesis.  It’s hard on her own, but according to Tikki she’s supposed to have a partner. She even gets to choose!</p><p>She decides her best bet is to pick someone from her class, and thus begins her six month long investigation of her thirteen classmates. One of them must be superhero material, and when the Summer Solstice finally arrives, she’ll have the Chat Noir to her Ladybug.</p><p>Whether she’ll still have her dignity, though… That’s another matter entirely.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Candidates

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One day we will get an actual origin story... Today is not that day, and so I present this AU where Ladybug has to choose her own partner. Maybe I'll come up with a semi-legit reason for that, or maybe it'll just turn out that Plagg was too busy taking a nap and dreaming of cheese to pick a new Chat Noir. Who knows.
> 
> Title of the fic is from the song Different Worlds by Jes Hudak.

_**Name:** ???_  
_**Alias:** Chat Noir_  
_**Age:** about 15_  
_**Gender:** female?_  
_**Height:** tall_  
_**~~Weight:~~** ~~I don’t think this matters~~_  
~~_**Race:** I don’t think this matters either_~~  
~~_**Ethnicity:** does any of this actually matter_~~  
~~_**Eye colour:** this definitely doesn’t_~~  
~~_**Hair colour:** why did I think this build-a-character worksheet would help me_~~  
_**Personality:** um… nice? and brave_  
_**Strengths:** athletic, smart, strong, fast, public speaking ~~so I don’t have to do it~~_  
_**~~Weaknesses:~~** ~~too athletic, too smart, too perfect, does all my work for me, TIKKI THROWS ME IN THE TRASH AND CHAT NOIR BECOMES PARIS’ SOLE HERO, EVERYONE SHUNS ME, ADRIEN THROWS EGGS AT ME WHEN I TRY TO TALK TO HIM, I’M REJECTED BY EVERY DESIGN SCHOOL IN EXISTENCE, I SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE LIVING WITH MY PARENTS AND WORKING THE CASH REGISTER AT THE BAKERY, PEOPLE COME IN TO POINT AND LAUGH AT THE FAILED LADYBUG, I DIE MISERABLE AND ALONE~~_

Marinette stared down at her worksheet with enough intensity to burn a hole through the paper. Coming up with an ideal Chat Noir to measure possible candidates against was…not going well. At all.

“You’re over-thinking this,” Tikki chirped, nibbling at her cookie. She hadn’t so much as glanced at the list. If she had, Marinette would’ve most likely been on the receiving end of a lecture on the importance of believing in yourself. Her kwami seemed to hand those out like candy, which made sense. What else were you supposed to do with an unsure fledgling superhero but heap encouragement on them? “You don’t need a checklist, Marinette. You just need to find your other half, the bad luck to your good luck, the Yang to your Yin—”

“All I got from that is that you want me to pick someone who breaks mirrors and walks under ladders,” Marinette told her.

Tikki let out a tinkling laugh as she floated closer. She tapped her cookie against the tip of Marinette’s nose and said, “Just look for someone you click with, you silly. Someone you’re comfortable with. The rest will follow naturally, I _promise_.”

Marinette bit off a piece of Tikki’s cookie before she could pull it back, reducing her kwami to helpless giggling.

“How’s that for silly?” Marinette teased, a warm feeling spreading through her. Tikki wasn’t just a guardian or a mentor—she was well on her way to becoming a good friend, too.

And Marinette _really_ didn’t want to let her new friend down, so she went back to focusing on the task at hand. Her other half, Tikki had said… Her thoughts immediately turned to Adrien Agreste. She’d only met him a few months ago on the first day of school, but she was pretty sure he was the love of her life. Still, he wasn’t exactly someone she was comfortable with—she could only imagine the stuttering mess Ladybug would become if she picked him as her partner. Besides, how could Adrien possibly be _bad luck_?

No, Adrien was definitely not a good fit for Chat Noir. Who was Marinette comfortable with? Her parents, but she was pretty sure they’d ground her for the rest of her life out of concern for her safety if they found out she moonlighted as a superhero. Alya, but her budding journalist of a best friend would probably be too busy trying to get footage of their encounters with supervillains to actually help out.

Who else was there? She’d known most of her classmates for years and she was comfortable enough around them, with the exception of Chloe and by extension Sabrina. That left… Mylene, Rose, Alix, Juleka, Nino, Max, Kim, Nathanael, and Ivan. Marinette tried to imagine each one of them as her superhero partner, Chat Noir. There was no click, no ‘ _Eureka_!’ moment, but there was also no gut reaction of, ‘Absolutely _not_ , this is wrong!’

She couldn’t rule them out, not yet, so she turned her worksheet over to the blank side of the paper and wrote:

_** CN Candidates ** _

_Alix_  
_Ivan_  
_Juleka_  
_Kim_  
_Max_  
_Mylene_  
_Nathanael_  
_Nino_  
_Rose_

She hesitated for a full minute before deciding she shouldn’t rule out any of her classmates, and so she added four names to her list:

 _Alya_  
_Sabrina_  
_Adrien_  
_Chloe_

“Aren’t those the names of your classmates?” Tikki asked, peering over her shoulder. “Good thinking, Marinette! You spend so much time with them at school, so you’ll have lots of opportunities to watch and see which of them would fit best as your partner. Plus it would be so convenient for Ladybug and Chat Noir to have such easy access to each other as your civilian selves.”

“Thanks!” Marinette smiled at her kwami. “I figured it would make the most sense. We just got assigned this art project, it’s supposed to help us get to know the people in our class we don’t spend as much time with. We have to interview each of our classmates, then we pick a name from a hat and create something that we feel accurately represents the person we got, based on what we learned from the interview. I can just go up to everyone and ask them questions to figure out if they’re Chat Noir material, and they’ll all think it’s for the project!”

“Smart _and_ cute, the perfect Ladybug!” Tikki praised, meeting Marinette’s upheld palm for a high-five.

Marinette laughed. “You _did_ tell me it was fate when I found the Ladybug Miraculous.” She glanced down at her list of names. “Let’s just hope one of my classmates is meant to have the Chat Noir one!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am going to have so much fun with this fic, especially once I get around to Ladrien interactions. Also, dragging Marinette kicking and screaming to the inevitable conclusion that Adrien is meant to be Chat Noir. That's going to be lots of fun, too.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this and are having a great day!


	2. Interviews

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I was thinking about that box with all the Miraculous stones in the opening, and how Ladybug’s earrings are in the white dot of the Yin symbol, and Chat’s ring is in the black dot of the Yang symbol. And I decided it makes more sense for Marinette to find the earrings on the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year, and for Adrien to get the ring on the Summer Solstice, the longest day. Basically, she finds the light in the darkness, and he finds the darkness in the light.
> 
> Soooo, I switched around Summer and Winter in the summary, and changed a couple lines in chapter 1—Mari has known Adrien for about three and a half months instead of just a couple weeks, and it’s not the middle of September, it’s the second week of January. She’s only been Ladybug for like three weeks, which actually makes more sense because why would she wait three months to start looking for a partner when she has such a short time limit? This way leaves her about five months to look.
> 
> Anyways, thank you guys so much for reading, and for the kudos, subscriptions and bookmarks!

The next day, Marinette sat at her desk and surveyed the battlefield around her, her only weapon a list of interview questions she’d prepared, and her only armor a pencil and pad of paper for taking notes.

Alya. Mylene. Rose. Juleka. Alix. Sabrina. Chloe ( _ugh_ ). Nino. Kim. Ivan. Max. Nathanael.

Adrien.

One of those thirteen people was the future Chat Noir, and Marinette was going to find out which.

* * *

“Would you consider yourself athletic?” Marinette asked Sabrina. (Backwards alphabetical order, she’d decided. Put off the interview she dreaded most for as long as possible in the wild hope that events would magically fail to proceed the way she knew they would.)

“Not really,” Sabrina said. “I hold Chloe’s bags whenever we go shopping, though. That could probably be considered a workout.”

Most of her responses had revolved around Chloe. Chloe believed global warming was a hoax; Sabrina did too. Chloe’s favourite show was Glee; so was Sabrina’s. Chloe thought bell bottoms were an abomination; Sabrina ran out of clothing stores screaming if she so much as glimpsed a pair of jeans flared below the knee.

( _Too much Chloe_ , Marinette wrote on Sabrina’s page under the **Cons** column. _Doesn’t think for herself. Likes Glee._ )

( _Likes hamsters_ , was the only thing on the **Pros** side.)

* * *

“What would you do if someone spilled their hot chocolate all over your scrapbook?”

Rose’s eyebrows pulled together as if she couldn’t believe Marinette had even asked such a question. “Well, I’d help them clean up, of course.”

“No, no, they did it on _purpose_ ,” Marinette clarified, jabbing the air with her pencil for emphasis. “What would you do?”

Rose thought it over. “Probably ask to sit down and talk.”

“ _Rose_ ,” Marinette said, unable to contain her disbelief. “This is your _favourite_ scrapbook that someone has _deliberately_ ruined. Don’t you want revenge?”

“It’s just, sometimes I think maybe we judge Chloe a little too harshly. Maybe she just really needs someone to talk to!”

“…This is a hypothetical scenario. I wasn’t specifically referring to Chloe.”

Rose reached out to pat Marinette’s free hand. “Of course you weren’t, Marinette. Of course you weren’t.”

( _Nice,_ Marinette wrote in the **Pros** column on Rose’s page. _Even-tempered. Compassionate. Shrewd._ )

( _Too nice_ , was the first thing under the **Cons** column.)

* * *

“…and you have to choose between letting your friend fulfill their dream and saving the entire planet,” Marinette finished. She stared at Nino hard as he agonized over his decision, narrowing her eyes when he broke into a sweat.

She slammed her hand against the desk. “The clock is ticking here, Nino. People are dying! He who hesitates is lost! This is no time to be—”

“Okay, okay!” Nino burst out. “I choose my friend!”

Marinette blinked. “You’re kidding me.”

A guilty flush crept up his neck.

“…Nino. _Nino_. Billions of lives are at stake, and your priority is making sure Jane gets to be a professional ventriloquist?”

“You said we exchanged friendship bracelets!” he protested weakly. “I couldn’t sell her out after that!”

“So you sold out THE ENTIRE PLANET instead?”

(The first item on the **Pros** side: _LOYAL—like, **Ride or Die** loyal._ )

(On the **Cons** side: _TOO LOYAL—practically his fatal flaw. Indecisive. Too easygoing—that was a **weird** question but he didn't even bat an eye._)

* * *

Nathanael seemed nervous during their interview, so Marinette went easy on him.

“What’s your favourite subject?” she asked him, smiling.

“…Art.”

“Oh, that’s right, you like to draw! I’ve never seen any of your drawings though…” She trailed off pointedly.

He turned a shade of red bright enough to rival his hair. “I, um. I’m…not comfortable sharing my work with others.”

“What if I showed you some of my designs in exchange?” she wheedled, leaning in closer to him across the desk. “That way we’re both putting ourselves on the line. How about it?”

Nathanael fell out of his chair.

( **Pros** : _Doesn’t give in to pressure._ )

( **Cons** : _What on earth was that?!??!_ )

* * *

“Why do you dislike Halloween?” It wasn’t a question she’d planned to ask Mylene, but they’d somehow gotten to talking about which holidays they liked and which they didn’t and now she was curious.

“Too many people in scary costumes,” Mylene said, shivering.

Marinette clucked her tongue sympathetically. “I remember last year, Alya was determined to go all out for Halloween. She bought like a bucket-load of make-up and fake blood and everything… I don’t even know _what_ she was, but half her face was missing and her teeth were rotting, it was the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

She reached into her bag for her phone, intent on showing Mylene some of the pictures she’d taken of Alya in that terrifying but cool costume, but then she noticed Mylene had progressed from shivering to full-on trembling from head to toe.

Marinette snapped her bag shut immediately. “…Not a fan of horror movies either, I’m guessing?”

Mylene whimpered.

( _Open-hearted,_ Marinette had concluded from most of the interview. _Quick-witted._ )

(But the last bit… _Kind of a scaredy-cat_.)

* * *

“So, wait… You run the gaming club, you’re in the poetry club, you help maintain the school’s website, _and_ you’re on the track team?”

Max nodded, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Video games are my passion,” he explained, “poetry is an emotional outlet, I get extra-credit for helping with the school’s website, and Kim and I have always been on the track team together since we were kids.”

“Wow.” Marinette leaned back in her seat. “You must be one busy guy!”

( _Too busy to save the world,_ she wrote in Max’s **Cons** column.)

( _Great résumé,_ she wrote in his **Pros** column.)

* * *

“Are you good at keeping secrets?”

“Pffft, who do you think you’re talking to? ‘Secrets’ is my middle name! I’ve kept all of Max’s secrets since _p_ _rimaire_ , and I’ve never told anyone that Chloe made me help her cheat at music—” Kim abruptly fell silent.

Marinette raised her eyebrows. “You weren’t about to say that you helped Chloe cheat at that game of musical chairs three years ago, were you, by any chance? The one that determined who got to choose where we went for our end-of-the-year field trip?”

Kim just sat there, mouth clamped shut, as Marinette stared him down.

Minutes passed. Marinette tapped her pencil against her desk. Took out her sharpener. Sharpened her pencil.

“You’ll never get me to talk!” he blustered.

Marinette inspected her pencil point. It broke when she poked it. She went back to sharpening her pencil, noting with vague interest that it was getting so short she could barely even hold it.

“It’s true!” Kim cracked like an egg. “You’re right! She won that game of musical chairs three years ago because I rolled a bouncy ball right into your path and you tripped over it!”

Marinette put her pencil down.

( **Cons** : _Terrible at keeping secrets. No poker face. Partially responsible for that field trip to the meat factory that resulted in my vegetarian phase._ )

( **Pros** : _It would be easier to get revenge if I made him my superhero partner and lulled him into a false sense of security first._ )

* * *

“Can you keep secrets?” Marinette asked Juleka straight-out. She’d learned her lesson.

“No,” Juleka said flatly. “I don’t keep secrets from Rose. I tell her everything.”

“You don’t seriously mean _everything_ , though, right?”

“Yes.” When Marinette continued to look perplexed, Juleka sighed and elaborated, “That time you accidentally flushed the class fish down the toilet. That time you asked me for a tampon and my extra pair of running shorts because you suddenly got your period in the middle of gym. Everything.”

“Oh.”

(Marinette drew an **X** through Juleka’s page.)

* * *

Ivan could keep secrets, thankfully. In fact, he kept his cool so well in the face of Marinette’s ruthless interrogation tactics that she might’ve just picked him on the spot if it hadn’t been for one thing…

“I’ve never really been a fan of superheroes,” he admitted when Marinette asked him what he thought of Paris’ dashing new saviour. “Don’t see why we really need this ‘Ladybug’. I’m sure the police could handle things.”

Marinette had to force herself not to pout.

“It doesn’t seem like they can, though. Ladybug doesn’t fight normal criminals; she fights people with superpowers like hers. And the police said that those people seem to be under someone else’s control, right? She’s the only one who can fix it,” Marinette reasoned.

Ivan shrugged. “I guess. Her whole aesthetic is kinda lame, though.”

“EX _CUSE_ ME?” she wanted to shout at him.

She bit her tongue instead.

(On the **Pros** side: _Good at keeping secrets. Cool under pressure._ )

(The **Cons** side was filled with rude insults.)

* * *

Chloe opened her mouth to speak.

( _NO,_ Marinette wrote.)

* * *

According to Alya, their interview was entirely unnecessary.

“I mean, we’re best friends. We already know pretty much everything there is to know about each other. Right?” she asked expectantly.

Marinette tried her best to radiate sincerity as she answered, “Yes, absolutely!” Her voice did not radiate sincerity; it came out in a squeak, like a mouse holding a giant neon sign that read, 'I'm a liar! I'm hiding something from you!'

Alya narrowed her eyes. “Spill it, girl.”

Oh, now Marinette was in trouble. The only way out of this one was to confess some other secret that she’d never admitted to Alya before…

“It was me! I’m the one who accidentally flushed Simon down the toilet six years ago!” she blurted out, sinking down in her seat. “I knew how much you loved that fish, so I never told you…”

Alya surprised her by bursting into laughter. “Is that all? I already knew about that.”

“Wait, _what_?”

“I overheard Juleka tell Rose about it  _years_ ago.”

“You’ve known…all this time?”

“All this time,” Alya confirmed.

Marinette thumped her head against the desk.

(The **Pros** column on Alya’s page was overflowing with praise.)

(On the **Cons** side: _LET ME DROWN IN GUILT FOR YEARS WHEN SHE COULD’VE ABSOLVED ME OF MY SIN AT ANY TIME._ )

* * *

Alix wasn’t anywhere near as tall as the Chat Noir Marinette pictured in her head, but she had a lot of other things going for her: she was athletic, she was brave, she was clever, and she was fair.

( **Pros** : _Athletic. Brave. Clever. Fair._ )

She was also a little… Marinette didn’t want to use the word ‘angry’. That wasn’t the right word.

Hot-headed, maybe. Brash.

( **Cons** : _Hot-headed._ _Brash. …Even shorter than me._ )

Marinette could see those first two qualities in the cons column making Alix a bit of a PR nightmare, but she wasn’t going to count the girl out just yet.

* * *

Marinette opened her mouth to ask Adrien a question. All that came out was a strange gurgling noise.

(Marinette drew an **X** through his page.)

* * *

“Why is Adrien’s page crossed out?” Tikki asked disapprovingly. She was flipping through the pad of paper where Marinette had jotted down all her notes. “He answered all of your questions perfectly!”

Marinette let out a groan as she flopped face-first onto her lounge. “What questions?” she demanded, voice muffled by the mattress cushion. “All I did was stutter out monosyllabic words.”

“And he somehow managed to translate those into actual questions. If that’s not a glowing recommendation, then I don’t know what is!”

Marinette lifted her face to glare at her kwami. “You’re supposed to make me feel better, not worse.”

Tikki floated over and nuzzled her cheek. “Sorry, Marinette. You did really well, you know! You learned so much about your classmates in such a short time-frame, and it will help you a lot in narrowing down the list.”

“I take it you approve of my decision to knock Chloe out of the running?” Marinette asked, pushing herself up on her elbows and studying the notes Tikki set down in front of her.

“Definitely! Chat Noir doesn’t have to be an angel, but we can’t afford to pick someone _that_ selfish.”

“What _does_ Chat Noir have to be?” Marinette asked. “I know you said I don’t need a checklist, but…”

Tikki sighed. “It’s not just that you don’t need one. There _isn’t_ one. Some Chat Noirs have been brave, some have been cowardly. Some have been tall, some short. Some have been girls, some have been boys, some have been neither. Any valuable qualities I could list are obvious and you’ve already taken them into consideration, like being resourceful and compassionate. The only real advice I can give you is to pick someone whose strengths both compliment your own and cover your weaknesses, and whose weaknesses are covered by your strengths.”

Marinette blinked. “That sounds a lot more complicated than just finding 'someone I click with.’”

Tikki pressed a brief kiss to her forehead. “Don’t stress about it too much. I know it seems overwhelming right now, but don’t forget that you’re still adjusting to being Ladybug! The more you get to know your own abilities and limits, the more obvious it will be what you need in a partner.”

It wasn’t the straightforward answer Marinette wanted, not by a long shot, but it made her feel better all the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will have Marinette actually interacting with Adrien as well as eliminating a couple of her classmates from the list.
> 
> Hope you guys are having a wonderful day!


	3. Kwamis

Chloe and Juleka. In the end, those were the only classmates she eliminated based on the interviews. (Well, she considered Adrien out of the running as well, but officially he was still a contender because she knew Tikki wouldn’t accept her reasoning—which was that her life would be _ruined_ if she picked him.)

She didn’t want to dismiss Juleka as a possibility, but she had no choice. Juleka didn’t say much, but whatever she did say she meant. She was honest, and she never exaggerated. If she said she told Rose _everything_ , Marinette had to take her at her word, and that meant not even considering Juleka as Chat Noir. Letting other people in on the secret might be possible someday, but for now Marinette needed complete and total confidentiality that Juleka simply could not provide.

It was a shame, though; Juleka was one of the taller girls in their class. Not that being tall was strictly _necessary_ , but Marinette hadn’t forgotten the news headline from when she’d first appeared as Ladybug: **Tiny Spandex-Clad Bug in Danger of Being Squashed**. She’d spare her partner the ridicule if she could.

Actually, the whole spandex-thing… It was a major reason she’d prefer working with a girl. She changed in front of her female classmates all the time for gym; she wasn’t half as comfortable around her male classmates. Beside, who knew what Chat Noir’s costume would look like?

Wait… She ceased staring out of her window listlessly, and spun around in her chair to look at her kwami instead.

“Hey, Tikki?”

“Yes?”

“What is Chat Noir’s costume going to look like?”

Tikki turned away from the video of stumbling puppies that she’d been watching on Marinette’s computer. “It changes from one Chat Noir to the next, so I don’t really know. It depends a lot on the fashions of the time period.”

“But you must have some idea what you want it to look like!” Marinette frowned, watching as Tikki’s antennas drooped guiltily. “…Wait. Does the person I pick to be Chat Noir get to choose their own costume? That’s so unfair!”

“No, no, Marinette. They don’t get to choose, their kwami chooses for them,” Tikki explained with obvious reluctance.

“Their kwami,” Marinette said blankly. “There’s _another_ kwami? One who’s going to be working with the Chat Noir I pick? Why didn’t you tell me? This is important information!”

Important information that suddenly seemed so obvious she couldn’t believe she hadn’t figured it out on her own.

“Because I didn’t want you to feel like you had to cater to Plagg’s obnoxious tastes,” Tikki said. It was the meanest thing Marinette had ever heard her say. She was sniffing at this ‘Plagg’ as if he were the dirt under her little feet.

“What kind of obnoxious tastes are we talking about here?” Marinette asked. When Tikki didn’t answer, she persisted, “Come on, please? I need to know! If you don’t tell me I’m just gonna freak out and not choose anyone at all for fear that they won’t live up to, er, Plagg’s standards.”

Tikki sighed. “All he cares about is cheese.”

“…Cheese?”

“Cheese,” Tikki confirmed. “He uses it to recharge, the way I use cookies or other sweets. Camembert is his favourite, if you want to get specific.”

“…Camembert?”

“Camembert.”

Marinette flipped through her notes doubtfully. She wasn’t sure she could add _Satisfactory supply of cheese, specifically camembert_ to anyone’s **Pros** column. Alya’s, maybe? Her mom was a chef.

She bit at her fingernails. “Is there really nothing else Plagg cares about? Nothing else he’d want from the new Chat Noir?”

“Well, he’s very mischievous, so someone with a sense of humour would be good,” Tikki allowed. “Or just someone who has a high level tolerance for…smelly cheese, tricks, laziness, the general insufferableness that is Plagg…”

“Tikki,” Marinette said, catching sight of something huge moving outside her bedroom window.

“Also, someone who isn’t easily swayed. Plagg is always trying to lead his Chat Noir astray, that little—”

“Tikki.”

“You asked!” Tikki defended herself.

“No, it’s not that, I appreciate the advice,” Marinette assured her. “It’s just. The city is under attack from a giant spider.”

“What.” Her kwami joined her at the window, and they watched as the eight-legged akuma scuttled up the side of the Eiffel Tower.

“I’m gonna puke,” Marinette said. “Tikki, **_spots on!_** ”

* * *

“I am _Daddy Long Legs_!” the villain roared. “I am going to avenge my innocent children that you humans so carelessly stomp on!”

“Oh, like you’ve never stepped on an insect,” Ladybug snapped, launching her yo-yo at him and praying it would wrap around one of his legs. If she could loop the string around all eight, she could take him down easily. Then she could go for the magnifying glass that was, bizarrely, dangling from a chain around the spider’s neck.

He dodged, and her weapon hit the ground with a clatter. “I haven’t, but I’m willing to make an exception for _you_ , Ladybug.”

“I’m not _actually_ a bug, you know!” She hurriedly yanked her yo-yo back in, and then spun it around and around so fast it deflected the silk he shot at her. “Just like the spiders you’re so intent on avenging aren't really your children! How about showing some concern for the innocent _human_ children you’ve trapped in your web?”

“Oh, don’t you worry, I’ll only eat the adults!”

His next shot went way over her head, but when she glanced behind her she realized he’d done it on purpose. The silk had stuck onto an apartment building, and he was using it to pull himself up onto the roof, where he would have a better vantage point.

Before she could follow him up to continue the fight, he changed his target.

“Look out!” she screamed, hurling herself at the group of civilians. She managed to knock all of them to the ground but one.

Before she could do anything, a very familiar voice cried out from beneath her, “Nino!”

Ladybug froze up as she took in the blond hair and designer clothes. Adrien…

“Ladybug, help!”

Maybe it was the suit, maybe it was the adrenaline pumping through her veins, or maybe it was just the knowledge that a friend was in danger, but it only took her half a second to pull herself together and scramble off of her crush.

She yanked him upright and ordered, “Get those three out of here, I’ll save your other friend!”

“Right!” He snapped into action immediately, and with Sabrina’s help he got Chloe and Kim to their feet and started towing them towards a nearby store that people were taking shelter in.

Ladybug swung herself onto a rooftop, landing in a crouch and rising up in one fluid motion. She locked eyes with Nino, his head the only part of his body not trapped in the spider’s silk, and smiled reassuringly before shifting her focus to the monster holding him captive.

“Let’s not waste each other’s time,” she called out, tossing her yo-yo into the air. “ ** _Lucky Charm!_** ”

* * *

Ladybug had barely set Nino down on solid ground when Adrien came running over.

“Nino!” He latched onto his best friend’s arms. “Are you okay?”

“I’m alright, bro.” Nino’s laugh was a little shaky. “Thanks to Ladybug!”

Oh, he just had to draw the attention to her, didn’t he?

It became apparent instantly that it wasn’t the suit that had allowed her to keep her cool in front of Adrien earlier, because she was still wearing it now and yet the second she locked eyes with him, she forgot how to form coherent sentences.

“I— Um, ah, I—” She fell quiet. Maybe she could salvage the situation if she just kept her mouth shut. Maybe dead silence would make her seem _mysterious_.

Thankfully, Adrien didn’t seem to have noticed her stammering. “That was amazing,” he said, strangely breathless, and for one long moment they just stared at each other.

His eyes were so green, so beautiful. They were open wide, filled with…admiration? She nearly swooned.

“It sure was!” Nino butted in, just as her earrings beeped for the third time. “I can’t believe you took down that giant monster with a measly bottle of soap!”

“Oh, well, uh…” was all she could manage at first, but then she took a deep breath and continued, “I was just lucky there was a fire hydrant so close. Without the water from the hydrant, the soap wouldn’t have been slippery and the spider wouldn’t have…um, you know…slipped.”

Adrien shot her a dazzling smile. “Maybe they should call you _Lady Luck_.”

With the mask on her blush was barely visible, but she still needed to get out of here before she either made a fool of herself or her transformation wore off. Or both.

“Well, I’m glad you’re all safe. I better head out, you guys take care!” She waved awkwardly.

“Adri _-kins_!” Chloe was racing towards them, Sabrina and Kim hot on her heels.

Yeah, Ladybug definitely wasn’t sticking around for the theatrics. She launched her yo-yo upwards, smiling in triumph when it wrapped around someone’s balcony railing—she’d had trouble with that sort of thing at first, but she was quickly getting the hang of it.

“See you around?” Adrien asked her, even as Chloe barreled into him.

All he got in return was a wink, and then, with a playful salute to her classmates and a tug of her yo-yo’s string, Ladybug was off, leaping across rooftops towards home.

* * *

After fetching a croissant from downstairs for her kwami to eat, Marinette said, “So, Kim totally panicked during that attack. He and Chloe literally had to be dragged to safety. I don’t think he’d make a very good Chat Noir.”

Tikki swallowed her mouthful before answering, “Me neither!”

“Sabrina, though… She kept her cool pretty well,” Marinette mused, as she tore Kim’s page out of the notebook and tossed it into her trash bin where both Chloe’s and Juleka’s pages already resided. “I was surprised. I wasn’t seriously considering her before, but now… I think she’s earned her place in elimination round two.”

“And what about Adrien?” Tikki asked, setting her croissant down. “He handled himself _very_ well.”

Marinette wasn’t a fan of lying if she could help it, but this was one of those rare unrelated-to-keeping-her-secret-identity-secret situations that called for fudging the truth.

“Then I guess he’s being bumped up to the next round, too,” Marinette said with careful nonchalance, even as she crossed her fingers behind her back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing action scenes is hard... Also I looked up spiders on google while writing this chapter and I never want to see another picture of a spider ever again.
> 
> Ladybug is at a bit of a disadvantage at the moment... She has a crush while Adrien is just starstruck. When he starts crushing on her back, though, and she gains more and more confidence...then he's gonna be in trouble.
> 
> Next chapter, Marinette tries to figure out which of her classmates could possibly be suited to this 'Plagg' kwami and his supposed mischievous nature and love of cheese.


	4. Test

January faded into February, and Marinette’s efforts to find a Chat Noir had slowed to a snail’s pace. Despite Tikki’s multiple reassurances, she simply could not help but worry that she would pick someone Plagg deemed unworthy.

“Is there any way I could just _ask_ him what kind of person he wants to work with? Do you know where he is? Could I meet him?” she finally asked.

Tikki sighed. “Marinette, do you remember how we first met?”

“Of course! I found the earrings in that hidden room below the Louvre, and when I picked them up you just popped out and scared me half to death!” Marinette recalled with a fond smile. The whole thing had been quite the adventure. A visit to the museum with her parents late one evening, a secret passageway that closed up behind her, an empty pedestal that she could just barely make out in the faint glow from her cell phone… And then at exactly midnight there’d been a blinding flash of light, and when her eyes had adjusted a pair of red earrings with black spots was waiting for her on the pedestal.

“Oh!” The realization hit her suddenly. “He’s trapped in the stone, isn’t he? Plagg. He’s trapped in Chat Noir’s Miraculous, just like you were trapped in Ladybug’s.”

“Yes, although when you put it like that it sounds a lot more unpleasant then it actually is. No matter how long I end up lying dormant in the earrings, it always just feels like having a nice nap,” Tikki said, her eyes glazing over.

Well, so much for that idea. If there was no way to contact Plagg directly, then her best bet was to take into account Tikki’s ranting from a couple of weeks ago. Marinette hadn’t made much progress towards the end of January, but she also hadn’t been idle. She’d already started investigating the cheese thing: Ivan, Mylene and Nathanael were all lactose intolerant, making them less than ideal choices; Alya would probably have the best access to camembert, followed by Adrien.

Adrien’s father wasn’t a chef, of course, but he _was_ so rich that Adrien could have just about anything he wanted with the snap of his fingers. Honestly, it was a wonder he wasn’t even a fraction as spoiled as Chloe was. Not that Marinette had changed her stance at all—as far as she was concerned, Adrien was out of the running, same as Chloe, Juleka and Kim. She had to keep observing him, though, because Tikki would catch on otherwise.

“So, cheese,” Marinette said out loud. She reached for a pencil and her list of candidates, adding a check mark beside both Adrien and Alya, and an X beside her lactose intolerant classmates.

“Camembert,” Tikki reminded her.

“Mmhm, I remember.” She tapped her pencil against her lip. “For the sense of humour thing you mentioned, though… That’s kind of hard to measure. I’d say all of my classmates have a sense of humour, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’d all get along well with Plagg. Even _Chloe_ has a sense of humour, it’s just most of us don’t agree with it.” To put it mildly.

Tikki frowned as she thought it over. “Plagg is very sarcastic, so it would be better to choose someone whose feelings aren’t hurt that easily. And he’s also mischievous, like I said before, so… Someone who can put up with that.”

“Mmhm.” Marinette drew some check marks and Xs. “He’s also lazy, you said? That would drive Max up the wall. And I shouldn’t pick someone easily swayed, right? There goes Sabrina…”

By the end of it, Alix, Alya and Nino had the most check marks, and Adrien, Mylene and Nathanael had the most Xs.

Tikki frowned some more. “That’s an awful lot of Xs beside Adrien’s name.”

Marinette was ready for this. “Tikki, I pay a lot of attention to Adrien. A _lot_. Trust me when I say he’s too sensitive to handle biting sarcasm, too serious to enjoy mischief, too hard-working to tolerate laziness, and…well, he hangs out with Chloe, and Chloe doesn’t spend time with people who don’t bend to her will.”

“I thought you had a crush on this boy,” Tikki said. “It sounds more like you think all he has going for him is an adequate supply of cheese.”

“I happen to like that he’s sensitive, serious, and hard-working!” Marinette protested, deliberately leaving out the Chloe thing. He didn’t spend _that_ much time with her. “Those are good qualities!”

“They are, as long as they're not taken to extremes, but… Look at your list. Nino has check marks in all the areas that Adrien has Xs. Doesn’t that strike you as strange? They’re best friends!”

“Opposites attract.”

Tikki did not look convinced, but Marinette barely noticed.

“I might just knock Adrien, Mylene and Nathanael off the list…but maybe I should give them one more shot? A test.” After all, Mylene definitely had the brains and the heart to be a superhero, and Nathanael the resolve to ignore Plagg’s attempts to lead him astray. Besides, being lactose intolerant wasn’t that big of a deal—it wasn’t like _they_ would have to eat the cheese to recharge.

“What kind of test?” Tikki asked warily.

“I…am not sure yet!” Marinette glanced at her computer’s clock. “ _AAAAAAAAAAAAACK_! I’m going to be late for school!”

She sprinted down the stairs, school bag slung over her shoulder and her kwami tucked safely away inside, and nearly collided with her mother who was waiting with a plateful of breakfast foods.

Marinette stuffed her mouth full with fruit and grabbed a croissant. “Faanks, Mom! Ofubye!”

“I love you, too, dear. Have a nice day at school!”

“Ahh, off to school?” her dad said as she burst into the bakery. “You should pack some sunscreen!”

“Wut?” Marinette stopped in her tracks to stare at her father.

“You wouldn’t want to get a sun burn with all those _bright students_ around! AHAHAHA!” He laughed along with the customer at the cash register.

Marinette swallowed her mouthful and immediately bit into the croissant so she wouldn’t have to answer properly.

“Sofanidad!” she lied inarticulately as she pushed open the shop's front door. “Ofubye!”

“Bye, sweetheart! Love you, too!”

“Dad jokes,” she said in disgust when she finally polished off her breakfast. No one was around, so she opened her backpack to free Tikki for a while.

“It wasn’t that bad!” Tikki said, zooming out of the bag.

Marinette just looked at her.

“…Okay, it was pretty bad.” Tikki suddenly burst into giggles. “It’s a shame your dad can’t be Chat Noir! I have a feeling he’d get along with Plagg _very_ well!”

It was like the heavens opened up and a bolt of inspiration struck her.

“That’s it!” Marinette gasped. “Tikki, that’s brilliant!”

“What?”

“Lame puns, Tikki! That’s the test! If my classmates can put up with lame puns, they can put up with virtually _any_ of Plagg’s behaviour!”

 Tikki’s smile froze on her face. “I really don’t think—”

“This is it!” Marinette roared, raising her hands up and balling them into fists. “A lifetime of suffering dad jokes has prepared me for this undertaking!”

“Please, no.”

“Oh, yes,” Marinette said.

* * *

Although she’d initially planned to only test Nathanael and Mylene, Marinette decided Alya would be her first target. If her own best friend couldn’t put up with her lame puns, then trying them out on anyone else would mean certain death. Alya, at least, would let her live to regret her sins.

Probably.

Marinette gave herself one day to prepare, and when the next morning came and she met Alya just outside the school, she was ready.

First, she glanced around as inconspicuously as possible to make sure there were no witnesses. The only person close by was Nino, but the Agreste limo pulled up just then and Nino was distracted by the arrival of Adrien.

Then she cleared her throat and said in a serious tone, “Alya.”

Alya immediately gave her best friend her full attention. She looked concerned, like Marinette was about to announce someone had died.

Marinette was not, in fact, about to announce someone had died.

“Why did Mme. Bustier take Monsieur Whiskers back to the animal shelter?” she asked.

“What?” Alya was taken aback. “I thought she kept him—”

“Because she couldn’t stand his _cat-titude_!”

It was one of those moments where the entire world seemed to hold its breath in suspense. Alya stared, her mouth gaping open, and Marinette stared back, questioning the formation of the universe and every single event that had brought her to this point in time.

“WHOA! Adrien, dude, are you okay?”

Ah, salvation. The girls broke their stare to turn and look at their classmates. Adrien was lying face down on the ground, his textbooks and notebooks and pencil case strewn all around him and his bag split wide open on his back. Nino crouched down beside him and picked the pull tab of a zipper out of his hair.

Adrien’s response was too muffled for the girls to hear, but as they rushed over he lifted his face from the ground and said, “I’m okay. I just…tripped.”

Nino helped him sit up, and Adrien looked at the neat piles Alya and Marinette were making with his stuff. “Thanks, you guys.”

“No problem!” Alya said, nudging Marinette. A friendly squeak was all she could manage, but Alya just rolled her eyes and continued, “What did you trip over, anyways?”

Adrien crammed his history textbook into his bag. His cheeks were pink as he answered, “Oh, uh. A crack. In the sidewalk.”

Nino whistled, handing Adrien his chemistry book. “Wow, that’s some bad luck!”

Something pounded against Marinette’s back from within her bag. Once. Twice. Over and over in a one-two rhythm. She could almost hear Tikki’s shrill voice in her ear repeating, “Bad. Luck. BAD. LUCK.”

“You shut up,” Marinette hissed at her backpack. There was one final, spiteful poke between her shoulder blades, and then Tikki settled down.

“Sorry?” Adrien said, blinking at her confusedly.

“OH!” Marinette coughed. “Uh, not you, I, uh—” She shoved Adrien’s pencil case at him and scrambled to her feet. “Gottagobye!”

Alya lagged behind to make excuses to the boys, but Marinette didn’t slow down until she reached her locker.

She started banging her head against the metal door over and over. Tikki popped out of her bag and gestured for her to stop, and she did so, waiting expectantly for whatever wisdom or comfort her kwami was about to offer.

“BAD…LUCK,” Tikki hissed instead.

Marinette went back to banging her head against the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tom's 'bright students' joke is one I found online somewhere, except that joke used sunglasses instead of sunscreen.
> 
> Tikki is growing more and more determined that Adrien will be Chat Noir with every passing chapter... She can rant about how insufferable Plagg is all she wants, but he's still her best friend/soulmate and she will accept only the best for him.
> 
> Next chapter, Marinette unknowingly woos Adrien with puns. The rest of her classmates are significantly less enchanted by Marinette's sudden comedy streak.


	5. Puns

It took her a full week to recover from the incident, and just as long for Alya to let it go and move on to something else.

Unfortunately, that ‘something else’ was the rapidly approaching Valentine’s Day. The third time Alya nudged her when they passed by the candy-gram booth Rose was running, Marinette decided she preferred being judged for her bad puns. She couldn’t even _talk_ to Adrien. Sending him a candy-gram or a card or anything besides the same generic cookies she handing out to the rest of her classmates was out of the question.

Besides, she had a mission. She needed a superhero partner; attacks were becoming more and more frequent. Whoever was behind sending the akumas—and if Tikki knew, she certainly wasn’t divulging the information—seemed to be getting stronger and stronger.

Well, so was Ladybug, and once she had a partner, her anonymous arch nemesis was going to get exactly what was coming to him.

But for now? It was time for more puns.

“Great,” Tikki said, her tone laced with uncharacteristic dryness. “I _love_ when it’s time for punny business.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow at that.

“Don’t you judge me,” was the grumbled response. “You dragged me into this disaster show; I’m just trying to get into the spirit of the thing. “

“You’ve been in a bad mood lately,” Marinette noted, studying her kwami carefully. “Anything to do with Valentine’s Day?”

“No.”

“…Anything to do with not being able to spend Valentine’s Day with the so-called ‘insufferable’ Plagg?”

“NO.”

“Anything to do with—”

“JUST GO TERRORIZE YOUR CLASSMATES WITH BAD PUNS.”

* * *

She started with Mylene as they waited for the first bell to ring, even though the girl was talking to Juleka. She’d rather keep those who weren’t her targets out of the crossfire, but Alya was nowhere in sight for once and Marinette simply could not pass up this golden opportunity.

“Hey, guys!” Should she make small-talk first, or go straight in for the kill?

“Hey, Marinette!” Mylene greeted with a cheerful smile. Juleka just nodded.

Straight in for the kill, she decided. Get it over with, like ripping off a bandage.

“What did the grizzly say to the panda?”

They looked at her blankly.

“Just _bear_ with me!”

It was barely twenty minutes past eight in the morning. The winter sun was shining down on them.

Marinette swore she could hear crickets chirping.

She did not hear the strangled noise that came from the blond boy standing three feet away.

* * *

She decided to test _all_ of her classmates—or at least, the ones she hadn’t already crossed off her list.

During recess she found Max and Alix sitting together, discussing Kim’s annoying dares.

“It’s infuriating! Can’t you talk to him about it?” Alix demanded.

Max sighed. “You ever tried to talk Kim out of anything?”

Marinette popped up from behind the bench with no warning. “Waiting for that hot-headed dare _devil_ to cool down is like waiting for _Hell_ to freeze over.”

Alix yelped. Max pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and said, “Marinette…I think you should work on your puns. That didn’t even count as one.”

He got up and left without further comment.

“Well I _never_ ,” Marinette fumed. She turned to Alix. “You thought that was good, right?”

Alix was backing away slowly. “I can’t believe I just heard that. I need to go pour bleach in my ears.”

“Please don’t!” Marinette called after her, only to be flipped off in response. “Well I _NEVER_!”

There was one person who mistakenly believed her joke was good, but Marinette failed to notice him chuckling to himself even as he accidentally walked straight into a wall.

* * *

“You know, your girl Chloe’s got some nerve, kicking me out of the plans that _I_ made with my bro Adrien,” Nino was lecturing Sabrina.

“What did Chloe do this time?” Marinette walked up to the pair.

Nino scowled. “I asked Adrien if he wanted to go to that pizza place a couple blocks away, he said yes, and then she burst into our conversation and dragged him off!”

“Well…that was really mean of her, but…why didn’t you just follow them?” she asked.

“She knows something about me that I _really_ don’t want this one specific person to know, and she swore she’d tell her— _them_ if I didn’t stay behind.”

Marinette noted the blush creeping up his neck with vague interest. “So…she blackmailed you.”

“Yes.”

Marinette looked at Sabrina. “What about you?”

“Chloe and I are best friends, she’d never blackmail me!” Sabrina said loyally.

“Right,” Nino said with a surprisingly heavy dose of sarcasm in his tone. “Instead she bribed you to skip lunch so she could bully my best bud into going on a date with her.”

Marinette didn’t know whose behalf to be more outraged on: Nino’s, Sabrina’s, or Adrien’s. She settled for the middle choice. “You don’t have anything to eat?”

“I normally go home for lunch, but today Chloe said she wanted to take me to her hotel's restaurant to thank me for doing last month’s art project for her, so I stayed. But now I don’t have enough time to walk to my house, eat, and walk back…” Sabrina trailed off as she noticed Marinette rummaging through her bag. “What are you doing?”

Marinette unwrapped her sandwich and handed Sabrina half. “I know Chloe and I don’t exactly get along well, but I’m not going to let you go hungry just because you have a jerk for a best friend.”

“She’s not a jerk!” Sabrina protested, but she took the offered food regardless. “Thank you, Marinette. I really appreciate it.”

Marinette smiled. “No problem.”

Sabrina bit into the sandwich. “Mmm, this is good!” she said after swallowing her mouthful.

“Well, my parents _do_ run a bakery. Making sandwiches is the _yeast_ of their talents.”

Only half of her audience got the joke; Sabrina was so focused on eating that the pun went right over her head.

Nino, on the other hand, groaned good-naturedly and said, “I’m in physical pain here, Marinette. I’m gonna go sit in the cafeteria and eat the burritos my mom made me before you _slay_ me with your _rapier_ wit.”

As he walked away, Marinette swore she heard him mumble to himself, “Rapier wit… I gotta tell Adrien about that one…”

* * *

 After lunch, Marinette somehow ended up with Nathanael and Adrien as her lab partners.

She waited until Adrien had gone to get the chemicals they needed before reassuring Nathanael, “Hey, I promise we won’t blow anything up.”

“What?” He blinked at her.

“It’s just, you seem a little nervous,” she said.

“Oh…yeah, I’m…not a fan of chemistry. It’s my least favourite class.” He was looking at Mme. Mendeleiev as he spoke.

Marinette wracked her brain for a way to cheer him up and make him feel more comfortable. Maybe it was time for the pun test? He’d be too exasperated to feel anything else.

She smiled as charmingly as she could. “I’d make a joke about our _chemistry_ , Nath, but I know I wouldn’t get a _reaction_.”

Later, when the fire department asked her what had happened, she could describe in perfect detail how her ill-timed pun had caused Nathanael to accidentally flick on the Bunsen burner he’d been fiddling with.

She could not explain why Adrien had tripped right behind them while holding a beaker full of flammable liquid.

Miraculously, the only injury was to Marinette’s pride. She doubted Nathanael would ever take her promises seriously again.

* * *

The following Monday she was grouped with Ivan and Rose during literature class to discuss the previous week’s reading material. They were the only ones left who she hadn’t tested, and though she’d promised Tikki she’d be more careful after the chemistry incident, she was determined to see her mission through.

She was still a little miffed about Ivan’s dismissal of Ladybug, but she’d drawn his name for the art project from last month and somewhere between designing the vest that was supposed to represent him and putting the finishing touches on it, she’d cooled down and decided Ivan was actually a big softie.

He, in turn, appreciated the vest so much that he wore it almost every day, despite the pink, blue and green hearts stitched on the inside. (A tribute to the Power Puff Girls, the only superheroes he actually liked. In fact, he and Mylene were such big fans that they both apparently had blogs dedicated to the trio.)

Maybe he’d change his mind about Ladybug and her aesthetic if Rose said she was cool. Rose was so nice and sweet, she could sell Girl Scout cookies to the devil, or even Gabriel Agreste.

“Hey, Rose,” Marinette whispered so Mme. Bustier wouldn’t hear. “What do you think of Ladybug?”

Rose smiled. “I think she’s great!”

“Right?” Warmth bloomed in her chest at the praise. “She kicks butt!”

“She’s an inspiration,” Rose gushed. “She’s kind and smart and tough and beautiful and—”

“ _Shhhhh_ ,” Ivan hissed.

Marinette did not _Shhhhh_. Marinette was on cloud nine, and she didn’t even notice that her crush was listening in instead of participating in the discussion his group members were having.

“Why? Are you worried we’re gonna be _spotted_ by the teacher?”

Rose’s eye twitched, but her smile remained fixed in place like she was afraid to rain on Marinette’s parade.

Ivan had no such qualms. “How about we just work on the assignment?”

“So, you want us to pay _antenna_ tion to our work?”

“You know we have to present our analysis in ten minutes, right?”

Marinette sighed. “I guess we should prepare for that, huh?” She gave her group members exactly five seconds to bask in their relief, and then she continued, “Or maybe we should just—”

Ivan narrowed his eyes at her, as if daring her to finish her sentence.

“— _wing_ it?”

 He stood up abruptly, his chair scraping across the floor with a loud grating sound that had the girls wincing.

The teacher looked up from the papers she’d been marking, startled. “Ivan—”

“Madame, may I switch groups?” he asked calmly.

“ _No_ , now sit down and stop disturbing the class—”

“I can’t work in these conditions!” he howled, his composure shattering even as Rose tugged uselessly at his vest.

“What _conditions_?” Mme. Bustier had that I’m-not-getting-paid-enough-for-this look on her face that all teachers had at least once in their career.

Ivan jabbed a finger at the source of his rage. “HER! Her, and her awful insect puns!”

The teacher frowned. “Marinette?”

“I’m sorry, Madame,” she said contritely. Rose looked at her with wide, pleading eyes, as if she instinctively knew what was coming, but Marinette hardened her heart and soldiered on. “I didn’t know they would _bug_ him that much.”

Ivan stormed out of the classroom.

* * *

Five minutes later, **_Bug Control_** showed up.

“They should suspend me for this,” Marinette said, crouching in the janitor’s closet while akumatized Ivan rampaged through the school. “I should suspend _myself_ for this.”

Tikki didn’t answer. She just floated there in front of Marinette’s face, silently judging her.

“Please just get in the earrings before someone comes to hide in here.”

Tikki did as she was told, but even as Ladybug raced through hallways trying to track down the villain, she could still feel her kwami’s very essence judging her, silently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chemistry joke is one I read online somewhere. Also, it's been years since I've been in a high school lab, but I'm pretty sure you can't just _accidentally_ flick on a Bunsen burner... Still. Suspend your disbelief.
> 
> Tikki is really missing Plagg... She's trying to fill the void by behaving a bit like him.
> 
> Next chapter, Ladybug needs a little help with Bug Control, so more Ladrien interaction.


	6. Hiding Place

Ladybug had a problem.

Well, actually, she had a lot of problems. She was _fifteen_ and legitimately had an arch nemesis, she constantly struggled with balancing her truckload of responsibilities, and she could barely string together a sentence in front of the boy she liked unless there was a catastrophe going on.

But right now? Her main problem was this: she had no clue which of Ivan’s belongings held the akuma.

How was she supposed to wrack her brain for ideas when he was squirting bug repellent at her over and over? She dodged another spritz. Maybe it was the spray bottle, but she didn’t remember seeing it on him before the transformation and she didn’t want to go on the offensive until she knew for sure what she was after.

At least there was no one in the cafeteria to get caught in the crossfire—that _really_ wouldn’t have been pretty, because the repellent melted everything it came into contact with.

Ladybug was pretty sure regular insect repellent didn’t do that.

“You know, bugs were here before humans were!” she called out.

“Great!” her opponent growled. “They arrived early to the party, they can leave early, too! Starting with ladybugs!”

What was with these villains and their hatred for ladybugs? She was starting to miss Daddy Long Legs. He’d only wanted to step on her; this one wanted to melt her into a puddle of goo.

The next spurt missed her by inches. She back flipped over to the serving counter, darted behind it and crept all the way over to the other end, peaking around it for several incredibly stressful seconds to inspect her foe from top to bottom.

The hat. The goggles. The gas mask. The full body suit, the vest, the boots—

The vest! What kind of bug exterminator wore a vest? It was plain black on the outside, same as the one she’d made for Ivan. That _could_ be a coincidence, but…

She jerked back behind the counter just in time, and the poor floor tiles were left to take the blow.

“Come out and play, bed bug!”

Right, that settled it. “I’m going in!” she muttered to herself.

The series of careful gymnastics it took to reach him without getting hit could’ve earned her an Olympic medal, and she congratulated herself on them as she sprung up right behind the villain and tore the vest off of his body.

“It’s over, Bug Control!” she shouted as she ripped the cloth in half. She waited for the butterfly to come out.

It didn’t.

She turned over the pieces of fabric in her hand, only to find that the inside of the vest was just as plain as the outside. No Power Puff Girl hearts stitched in, nothing.

This wasn’t the vest she’d made Ivan, which meant—

“ _LADYBUG_!”

She reacted instinctively, ducking down in the nick of time and kicking her opponent’s legs out from under him in one swift motion.

She didn’t stick around to see him recover. The seconds it took her to sprint to Adrien’s side might’ve very well been the longest of her life to date, but the panic didn’t fade even after she’d latched onto him and dragged him out of the room.

She pulled him along behind her as she ran, trying to put as much distance between them and the danger as possible.

“Wait, wait, the school is locked down! We can’t get out!” he gasped to her, out of breath. “We need to go somewhere else!”

“ _We_?” She stopped ramming her shoulder into the exit door and rounded on him. “ _WE_ aren’t supposed to do anything! _You_ are supposed to be hiding someplace safe until _I_ have dealt with the threat!”

The flash of defiance in his eyes would’ve knocked the wind out of her at any other time. Right now, it just made her want to grab him by the shoulders and shake some sense into him.

“I saved your life.”

“I had it under control!”

“You clearly didn’t, and I couldn’t let you—”

“—it’s not your job to look out for me—”

“—well _somebody_ has to—”

Ladybug clapped a hand over his mouth and pushed him behind a row of lockers. “I hear footsteps,” she hissed in his ear.

“Oooooooooh, _Ladybug_ …” came Ivan’s voice, warped as it was by the transformation. “If you give yourself up, I promise I’ll leave the pretty boy alone…”

For half a second, she honestly considered it. This entire mess was her fault; she couldn’t let Adrien be harmed or even killed for her mistakes.

Adrien made a noise of protest from under her hand, but that was one warning she didn’t need.

Whoever was behind these attacks, they had no problem watching their puppets wreak havoc on innocent people time and time again. There was very little chance they would keep their word, and even if they did, she knew they wanted her Miraculous and she was sure it wasn’t for anything good. Giving herself and her earrings up to save Adrien now could very well put him and everyone in Paris in even greater danger later.

“No? That’s too bad… I was hoping I could do this the easy way…” He feigned a disappointed sigh, and then the sound of footsteps retreated.

Ladybug counted out a full minute in her head and then let her hand fall from Adrien’s mouth to his shoulder, allowing him to speak.

“What do you think he’s planning?” he whispered.

“I don’t know but—” Abruptly, she realized she was still pressing Adrien up against the lockers with her body. She released his shoulder and jumped back from him like he was on fire, nearly biting her tongue off in a desperate attempt to keep from yelping. “Sorry.”

“S’no problem,” he said, bringing a hand up to rub the back of his neck sheepishly.

Ladybug very pointedly did not think about how that hand had been resting on her waist a moment ago.

“Right, well—” She shook her head as if that would convince her brain to slow her heartbeat. “I should get you somewhere safe and then go—”

“But—” he interrupted. He instantly dropped his protest when she glared at him. “Fine. But before we go, can I get my fencing gear from my locker? Just in case I need to protect myself.”

She eyed him suspiciously for a moment before conceding, “Not a bad idea, but hurry it up, okay? We need to get moving.”

* * *

Ladybug couldn’t shake her unease as they crept along the hallways to the teacher’s lounge. She hadn’t seen _anyone_ besides Adrien since she’d first tracked down Bug Control, and that struck her as strange.

“Hey, do you know where any of your classmates are?” Ladybug asked Adrien in a low voice.

“We scattered after the bad guy showed up,” he whispered back. “I hid in the music room, but then I heard screams and I just… I was worried about my friends, so I left. The screams stopped, though, so I didn’t know how to find them… Eventually I heard all the commotion in the cafeteria, and you know the rest.”

She wasn’t sure if she wanted to kiss him or smack him. “That was very brave of you, but next time, let me handle it.”

He opened his mouth, undoubtedly to voice some irritating objection, but she held up a hand to cut him off.

There was gas coming through the air vents.

Ladybug cursed under her breath. Clearly, she was up against more than a spray bottle.

“Put on your fencing mask.”

“I don’t think that would help much,” he said apologetically, as if he’d inconvenienced her or something.

 _He_ hadn’t. She eyed his fencing mask with disgust. It was supposed to protect Adrien, and yet when its moment of truth came? Useless.

“You said the school was locked down,” she said, gesturing for Adrien to crouch down with her. The gas didn’t seem to be sinking right away, and the less they inhaled, the better. “Does that include _all_ the windows? Not just the ones you can climb out of, but the ones that only open a little to let fresh air in?”

“We didn’t check.”

“Let’s do that now, then.” She cracked open the door of the nearest classroom and immediately pulled it shut again.

“What?” Adrien demanded in a whisper.

“That room’s already filled with gas,” she said, and hesitated before deciding to continue, “and some of your classmates, too. They’re unconscious.”

The look on Adrien’s face as he stared at the closed door made her wish she’d kept her mouth shut. “I guess that’s why the screams stopped.”

“Hey, look at me.” She waited until he did so. “Your friends will be fine, and so will you. I’m gonna get you out of this, okay?”

He searched her eyes for a long moment before he said, “Okay.”

There was no time to get Adrien somewhere safe now, and trying would’ve been pointless anyways. With the gas coming through the vents, not a single inch of this school was safe. The only thing she could do was capture the akuma as soon as possible and restore everything to normal with her magic, which made finding Bug Control her top priority.

As for Adrien…she looked at his sword. What was it called again? A rapier? A sabre? “Alright, just this once, you’re coming with me. Try not to get your face melted off.”

He surprised her by smiling. “Whatever you say, Lady Luck.”

* * *

On the way to the furnace room—which they’d decided was the place they were most likely to find Bug Control—Ladybug explained to Adrien that she needed to find and destroy a specific object that was the source of the villain’s power.

“It’ll be something your classmate had on him before he transformed. Something important to him, so he probably has it with him a lot.”

“Well, I don’t really know how important it is to him, but he was holding a stress ball before he stormed out of class.”

“A stress ball,” Ladybug repeated blankly. “A…stress…ball?”

“Yeah, one of our other classmates started making all these great puns, and Ivan took out a stress ball and started squeezing it… Guess he really doesn’t like puns.”

Wow, Ladybug had _really_ messed up. Ivan had done his best to keep calm, but she’d pushed too far.

“That’s going to be a problem, isn’t it?” When she threw Adrien a questioning look, he clarified, “You said you have to destroy the object. You tore that vest in half because you thought it was the object you were looking for, right? But you can’t exactly do that with a stress ball?”

He said it like he thought maybe she could.

“I don’t think so, no.”

He frowned down at his sword. “I don’t think this will help with that, either.”

They’d finally reached the door to the furnace room. For a moment they just looked at each other uncertainly, but the hallway was filled with too much gas for them to avoid it now and Ladybug knew they couldn’t afford to wait any longer.

So she squared her shoulders and said, “Stay behind me as much as possible, okay?”

And she kicked the door open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When the danger has passed, it's going to occur to Marinette that Adrien 'too serious to enjoy mischief' Agreste said her puns were great. And Tikki will never let her forget it.
> 
> I wanted the fight to be over with in one chapter, but it was getting way too long (relatively speaking), so I split it in two. So...next chapter will also have Ladrien interaction.


	7. Teamwork

The bad news: the furnace room was practically overflowing with gas.

The good news: it didn’t instantly knock them out.

The other bad news: it _was_ affecting them, making their chests tighten and their heads swim, forcing them to draw in shallow breaths of air at a rapid pace.

The even worse news: the gas didn’t affect their opponent at all, since…y’know…his costume included a gas mask, which he had wisely chosen to wear.

The news that couldn’t possibly get any worse: he was still squirting his freaky bug repellent at them, because of course the gas wasn’t enough.

“This is really overkill!” Adrien gasped out as he dropped his melting fencing mask to the ground.

“You read my mind!” Ladybug called back, struggling to think past her pounding headache. “The stress ball must be in one of his pockets!”

If she was telepathic, she could’ve informed Adrien without speaking that he should cover her while she tried to use her yo-yo skills to spill the contents of the pockets onto the floor. Alas, she was not telepathic, and if she wanted to tell him her plan she would have to either do it in full hearing range of their enemy, or hope that a boy who’d only spent like an hour with her superhero alter-ego could somehow decipher her signals.

She chose the second option. It was a long shot, but she had to try.

“You know I’ve always had a problem with bed bugs and mosquito bites…” She broke into a coughing fit. This gas was really climbing up her list of ‘Most Hated Substances Known to Man’ fast. “It’s good to know you’ve _got me_ _covered_ , Bug Control!” She nodded at the spray bottle.

There was no point in checking to see if Adrien got the message; it was now or never. She spun her yo-yo out of ‘shield mode’ and towards the villain, leaving herself wide open. Sure enough, Bug Control sent a spritz of repellent flying straight at her face, and Ladybug could only pray her magic would be able to fix the damage.

It never hit her. Adrien had gotten her message, all right, and he’d used his sword to snag a nearby bucket by the handle and fling it just in time to intercept the spray.

As the bucket melted, her yo-yo struck the right pocket of the exterminator’s suit and several objects came spilling out. One of those objects was the stress ball, and when she reeled her yo-yo back in it knocked the rubber ball towards Adrien. He caught it easily and tried to tear it apart with his fingers, but just as they’d predicted, it didn’t work.

That was fine; Ladybug knew exactly what to do.

“ ** _Lucky Charm!_** ”

A lighter. She examined her surroundings the way she always did after receiving her lucky charm, but for once it was obvious where this was going: set the stress ball on fire.

Her eyes zeroed in on the foe’s bottle of repellent.

Okay, _really_ set the stress ball on fire.

Bug Control’s outrage over his stolen possession was all the distraction Ladybug needed. With a flick of her wrist and a sharp tug to yank her yo-yo back in, she had her prize in her grip. 

“Warning: contents flammable,” she read aloud, barely holding in another coughing fit. “You don’t say.”

“You know…I’ve heard rubber…is flammable…too,” Adrien wheezed nonchalantly, eyeing the ball in his hand. “If we’re not…careful…we’ll have a real… _insect_ -ferno…on our hands.”

Ladybug was so out of it she didn’t even register the terrible pun. “Toss the ball here,” she choked out, ignoring Bug Control’s irate bellowing.

“Gladly.”

* * *

 “ ** _MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!_** ”

Her magic had never felt more like a miracle than it did in that moment: the gas vanished, her head and lungs cleared, and the awful stench of burning rubber disappeared.

Ivan was, understandably, very disoriented when he came back to himself.

“What…Ladybug?”

“Hey,” she said, gently rolling his stress ball towards him. It was kind of cute now that it wasn’t infected with evil, a sunshine yellow with a smiley face printed on it. “You alright?”

“I guess so.” He picked up the ball without taking his eyes off her.

The look on his face made her feel like a ticking time-bomb, but she bit back her wince and instead told him, “No more bug puns, I promise. Right?” She nudged Adrien.

“…Right,” he said slowly, giving her a strange look.

“Well…thanks. I should go apologize to my classmates now.” Ivan left.

This time Ladybug did wince. Everything that had happened had been _her_ fault, not his, but she decided Marinette would say sorry to him later. It would be suspicious coming from a superhero who’d seemingly had nothing to do with him being akumatized.

Her earrings beeped just as Adrien held up a fist. “We made quite the team, huh, Lady Magic?”

This was the part where she stuttered out an excuse and ran off, but all at once it dawned on her just how right he was, and just how much that meant to her.

It had been nearly two months now since she’d become a superhero, and in that time she’d never had _anyone_ by her side during a fight. Oh, the police had warmed up to her after a couple of weeks and they’d been willing enough to cooperate with her lately, but when it came to facing down the enemy? She was always alone.

Adrien was a civilian, and from his perspective, Ladybug was a stranger. Yet he’d risked his life for her, to help her save his friends, and he’d picked up on her hidden message and understood her intentions better than she could ever have expected.

He’d had her back, and while that wasn’t a new concept to her—her parents, Alya, and Tikki were always there for her in her everyday life when she needed them—it also wasn’t something she’d ever had before when it came to protecting Paris.

Her earrings beeped again, and Adrien’s hopeful smile fell.

Before he could let his fist drop back to his side, she raised her own and bumped her knuckles against his. “We really did.”

His entire face just _lit up_ , and she couldn’t help but beam back. She felt like she could move mountains, or part an ocean, or even touch the stars.

“By the way, where did Lady _Magic_ come from? I thought you called me Lady _Luck_ ,” she teased.

His laughter had her heart tripping all over itself, falling out of its normal rhythm. “I remembered that the news called you Lady Luck the other day, and I wanted to go with something unique.”

“Why not just call me by my actual name?”

“I don’t know your actual name.”

She pouted at him. “I _meant_ my superhero name. _Ladybug_.”

“Hmmm…” He pretended to think it over. “Nah, I think I’ll stick with Lady Magic. Unless you’d prefer Lady Light?”

Her earrings beeped for the third time, just as she got an idea that was impossible to pass up. “Okay, you win. Call me whatever you like…Adri-kins.”

Watching her crush almost choke on air was surprisingly satisfying.

“Is that not your name?” she asked innocently. “I could’ve sworn I heard your friend call you that when we first met a couple weeks ago. You know, the blond girl? Or is she your girlfriend?”

“No, she’s not— That’s not— I, uh, I, um—” he sputtered, before taking a deep breath. “She’s not my girlfriend. We’re…friends. Mostly.”

“Mostly?” She put her hands on her hips and wondered if maybe she was enjoying this a little too much.

“ _Definitely_ not my girlfriend,” he said with conviction, like it was genuinely important to him that she understood this fact.

Her smile softened. “And your name?”

“Adrien. My name is Adrien.”

“Adrien,” she repeated, and blushed at how intimate it sounded on her tongue, as if she was saying it for the first time rather than the hundredth.

That was okay, though, because Adrien blushed, too.

* * *

Tikki had a lot to say when they got home, and Marinette listened guiltily to her kwami’s lecture on respecting people’s boundaries.

“Humans are creatures of habit, but they can be unpredictable, too. Look out for warning signs. Pay attention to body language. And _listen_. LISTEN when someone is telling you they’ve reached their limit,” Tikki finished, finally drawing in a deep breath.

“I won’t make this mistake again, Tikki, I promise,” Marinette swore, and her kwami smiled.

“I know you won’t, Marinette. That’s one of the many wonderful things about you: you learn from your mistakes and always try to do better.”

Tikki gave her about thirty seconds to bask in the praise before she continued, “Except when it comes to Adrien.”

“Adrien?” Marinette’s face fell. “I know I shouldn’t have let a civilian endanger themselves like that, but—”

“Oh, no, that’s not what I meant!” Tikki rushed to explain. “You were backed into a corner, Marinette. There was nowhere he could go where he would’ve been safe. You made the right call, if the hard one.”

“Oh,” Marinette said in relief, and blinked when Tikki zoomed in close and planted a kiss on the tip of her nose.

She broke out into giggles and Tikki joined her, letting out a sweet, tinkling laugh. Eventually, though, they settled down and Tikki said, “What I _meant_ was that you have a habit of ignoring truths about Adrien that you don’t want to face.”

Marinette tried not to sound defensive when she said, “What truths?”

“Do the words ‘too serious to enjoy mischief’ ring a bell to you?”

“…Maaaaaaaaaybe.”

“And do you remember Adrien referring to your terrible puns as ‘great’ and making his own even worse pun while you guys fought Bug Control?”

“Actually, now that you mention it, it’s all a bit of a blur—” Marinette began, but stopped at the look on her kwami’s face. “…Well, it’s not like he’s throwing out puns left and right while at school! What was I supposed to think?”

“That maybe being serious doesn’t stop Adrien from _also_ being silly. You can be plenty serious when the situation calls for it, but you’re also one of the silliest people I’ve ever met!” Marinette stuck her tongue out in response, and Tikki exclaimed triumphantly, “The. Silliest!”

Then her smile softened. “Marinette, one of my favourite things in the world is the way I learn more and more about you every day. Because there’s _so much_ to you. You’re serious and silly, confident and unsure, sweet but brash, level-headed in most cases but hot-headed in others, selfless and yet sometimes petty.”

Tikki floated up a few inches and brushed Marinette’s bangs out of her wet and shining eyes. “People are a mess of contradictions. People are _complex_. I never feel like I’ve seen all the little pieces that make you who you are.”

“I’m not saying you know nothing about Adrien, but I think insisting you know _everything_ about him is only going to slow you down.”

* * *

Marinette thought about that a lot as she tried to fall asleep, and she was still thinking about it when she woke up the next morning. About how easy it was to fool yourself into thinking you knew everything about someone, and how that stopped you from seeing anything other than what you expected to see.

When she opened her eyes a little wider, she saw that Ivan’s secret soft side wasn’t all that secret. He accepted Marinette’s apology openly, with a gentle smile that he didn’t try to hide. Mylene the scaredy cat was plenty brave—brave enough to approach a classmate and tell them off for pushing a friend too far. Alix was sensitive enough to offer Ivan her support, and Max wasn’t too busy to suggest they all hang out after school.

She wondered what she wasn’t seeing about Alya, her very best friend, and even Chloe, her rival-bordering-on-enemy.

Later, Marinette and Adrien were tasked with fetching pizzas for the class to snack on while they faced each other down in the impromptu gaming tournament they were having in the library.

And she found that Adrien wasn’t too serious or too shy to say, “You know, Marinette, if you really need to _slay_ someone with your _rapier_ wit, I’m willing to take one for the team.”

“A-Are you, now?” she asked, reminding herself that she’d been able to keep her head around him as Ladybug.  What was the difference, really? A suit that practically made her invulnerable, a mask that hid her identity, an immediate threat that she’d needed to focus on or they probably all would have died…and a different name that she was still getting used to. A name that nonetheless belonged to her.

“I think, um.” She took a deep breath and counted to ten in her head as Adrien waited patiently for her answer. “I’m pretty sure you stole that one from Nino.”

The touch of shyness in his smile made her heart beat faster and her palms sweat. “Alright, you caught me. Still, keep it in mind: I’m fully prepared to be sacrificed on the altar of your puns.”

“I’m not so sure you’d make a good martyr,” she said, too nervous to add a sarcastic edge to her tone, but you wouldn’t have known the joke was missing anything from the way Adrien laughed.

* * *

February 14th finally arrived, and Marinette handed out her heart-shaped cookies to everyone in her class, even Chloe.

Adrien was the only one who got a heart-shaped note in his locker.

 _Thank you **so** much for all your help the other day. I really couldn't have done it without you, _ she’d written on the pink paper, and below that:

 _Sinc_ _e you were having a bit of a hard time deciding what to call me,_   _just for today…if you want, you can call me your Valentine._

She’d signed it with a small drawing of a ladybug.

Adrien had a “soppy, love-struck grin” (Nino’s words, not hers) on his face for the rest of the day.

Marinette was the only one in their class who pretended not to notice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I typed ‘love-struck’ into thesaurus dot com and it asked me if I meant ‘livestock’…yes, thesaurus dot com, I absolutely did want to compare Adrien’s grin to farm animals.
> 
> Anyways, there you have it. Ladybug, daredevil extraordinaire, using a lighter in a room filled with an unidentified gas that could easily be flammable. I guess she figured Lucky Charm wouldn't have given her a lighter if using it would result in an explosion?
> 
> Next chapter, Marinette considers for the first time that not all of her classmates would necessarily _want_ to be Chat Noir. (Also, despite all the soul-searching she's doing regarding Adrien and her perceptions of him, Marinette is still not very open to the idea of him being Chat, much to Tikki’s incredulity and frustration.)


	8. March

By the time spring rolled around, Marinette had half of her list crossed out. Six names left: Alix, Nathanael, Nino, Rose, Alya, and Adrien.

Marinette didn’t hesitate to cross off Ivan’s name after the Bug Control incident. If Plagg was half as bad as Tikki made him sound, there was no way Ivan would be able to stand him. Besides, Ivan seemed to have warmed up to Ladybug after she’d saved him from the akuma, but that good-will would probably (understandably) turn sour if he found out she was the reason he’d needed saving in the first place.

Mylene was the next to go. She was without a doubt braver than Marinette had given her credit for during their interview, but the things she was afraid were exactly the sorts of things she would have to deal with as Chat Noir. Facing your fears was important, but when it involved risking your life… Marinette couldn’t ask that of Mylene.

Max made time for his friends, but saving Paris? She’d overheard him comment that he couldn’t even imagine how Ladybug juggled superhero duties and her regular responsibilities. “I wouldn’t even have time to eat, and forget about sleeping!” he’d said, shuddering. “It would be like a waking nightmare.”

Then there was Sabrina. Marinette was impressed by the way she handled herself in a crisis, but the lengths she went to to maintain her friendship with Chloe… She’d made nine of their schoolmates cry on Valentine ’s Day alone, all on her best friend’s orders. In the weeks following that day, Marinette had come to the conclusion that there was no way Chloe wouldn’t find out somehow if Sabrina became Chat Noir, and if Chloe found out, there was no way she wouldn’t try to use the knowledge for her own selfish gain. She’d probably succeed, too.

Crossing Sabrina off the list was practically a safety measure, but crossing off the other three led her to consider something that had merely been a formless concern in the back of her mind: not all of her classmates would want the job.

Whether it was the danger (as with Mylene), the enormous commitment of time and energy required (as with Max), or even just the prospect of having to work with Marinette and Plagg (as with Ivan)… Marinette needed to find out which of her remaining classmates, if any, would be willing to become her partner in addition to being suited for it.

“Tikki, I’ve figured out the next step!” Marinette said, finally lifting her eyes from the list of names she’d been staring at so intensely the letters had blurred.

Tikki zipped over and around Marinette’s head to settle on her shoulder. “Oh? So have I.”

Somehow, Marinette knew what was coming, and she tried to brace herself for it.

Her kwami floated upwards a few inches to tug on her earlobe. “Just. Pick. Adrien. ALREADY!”

“Tikki,” Marinette began with a patronizing sigh.

Tikki did not let her finish, yanking on her ear again sharply before releasing it. “Pick him! Write him a contract, ask him to sign on the dotted line, he won’t even bother to read the fine print! He’s ready! He’s willing! Oh gosh, is that boy willing!”

She buzzed around Marinette’s head like an angry bee as she ranted, and Marinette sighed again. “Tikki—”

“Now that you can talk to him without forgetting how words work, there’s no reason to deny the inevitable, Marinette. Think of the perks! Think of how romantic saving Paris together would be! Think about rooftop chases with your crush, both of you wearing form-fitting spandex!” She caught sight of Marinette’s face. “DON’T think about both of you wearing form-fitting spandex! Think about how it would feel to rendezvous with your lover at the top of the Eiffel Tower in the middle of the night, as if the two of you were the only people in the world—”

“Are you encouraging me to break my curfew and sneak out to spend time with a boy behind my parents’ backs?”

“…IN THE EARLY EVENING,” Tikki amended. “ON A FRIDAY OR A SATURDAY. MAYBE A SUNDAY IF YOU HAVE ALL YOUR HOMEWORK DONE ALREADY. MAYBE GET YOUR PARENTS TO SIGN A PERMISSION SLIP FIRST.”

“Tikki.”

“Standing at the top of the world with your lover in the fading twilight, it’ll be like the gawking tourists taking a million pictures of you aren’t even there!”

“You’re really not selling this very well.”

Tikki deflated like a balloon with a leak as she sank back down to earth. “Just pick him,” she begged. “He’s the perfect Chat Noir!”

“My next step, since you were _so_ curious,” Marinette said as if she hadn’t heard her kwami’s plea, “is to find out how much free time our remaining options have in which to kick butt and save lives.”

Marinette turned her nose up and ignored Tikki’s groan. “I’m not sure about Alix, Nathanael, Nino or Rose, but Adrien? Is so busy he can barely find time to tie his shoelaces.”

“Something you know because you wanted to create a _stalker schedule_ until I talked you out of it,” Tikki pointed out. It sounded like she’d been saving that one for a special occasion.

“And I appreciate that,” Marinette assured her, magnanimously deciding to be the bigger person despite the low blow. “You saved me from heading down a very dark path—”

“—that likely would’ve ended with you behind bars—”

“—that I’m _sure_ I would’ve turned away from _on my own_ …eventually,” she muttered the last word under her breath. “But the _point_ is, between school, modelling, fencing, piano, Chinese, and basketball, Adrien simply cannot be a superhero, too. He’d drive himself into a coma or something.”

“So good of you,” Tikki said, sounding as if she were speaking through gritted teeth that Marinette was 90% sure she didn’t even have, “to think of his well-being and mental health. So selfless.”

“Look, I get why you think he’d be a good choice,” Marinette spoke in a softer tone. She could sense that Tikki was getting seriously annoyed now, and she didn’t want her to think she was dismissing her point of view. “We worked really well together against Bug Control.”

This was clearly the right approach, because although Tikki opened her mouth to interrupt, she ultimately decided not to, letting Marinette continue, “But that was just one time; picking him as Chat Noir would be a permanent thing! You told me if I accepted the earrings then it would be my responsibility to look out for the citizens of Paris, and that’s what I’m trying to do. I don’t want to screw this up and make the wrong choice just because Adrien and I had a lucky break, or because I want to get closer to my crush… Do you get that?”

Tikki sighed. “Yeah, I do. I just wish you’d at least seriously consider it.”

“I will,” Marinette promised, and for once her fingers weren’t crossed behind her back. “I have until the Summer Solstice, right? That’s when the Chat Noir Miraculous will appear?” She caught the surprised look on her kwami’s face and smiled. “You _did_ originally tell me I had until June 21 st… I didn’t make the connection at first, but once I found out Chat Noir also had a kwami, I figured maybe most things worked the same way for both of us, and since I found my earrings on the _Winter_ Solstice…”

“You’re too clever for your own good!” Tikki exclaimed, and Marinette laughed and shot back, “What do you mean, it’s totally a good thing! This way we don’t have any secrets between us!”

Marinette flicked her notebook closed, powered down her computer, and switched off her desk lamp.

“T—Time to— call it a night!” she yawned, completely failing to notice the guilty look on her kwami’s face.

As she tucked herself into bed, she thought about how nice it was to have at least one friendship that didn’t involve any secrets. And how nice it would be when the Summer Solstice finally arrived, and she could work at forging another with Chat Noir.

* * *

The next morning, Marinette arrived at school well-rested, well-fed, and ready to do some sleuthing.

Marinette glanced around her surreptitiously before shoving her face over the opening in her backpack and hissing, “ _Operation: Bee_ is underway.”

“That’s a stupid name!” Tikki complained, wiggling her way out of the landslide of books she was caught in.

“No it’s not!” Marinette whined. “Bees are busy, and I need to find out who else is busy!” She paused for effect. “Besides Adrien.”

Tikki grabbed a pen from Marinette’s pencil case and thrust it viciously at her face. She was probably going for the tip of the nose, but she…missed, slightly.

“OWWWWWWWWW!” Marinette howled as the pen was shoved up her right nostril.

“Marinette?”

Marinette’s watering eyes almost popped out of her head. Tikki hurriedly yanked the pen out of Marinette’s nose, looking up at Marinette with a beseeching expression that said she couldn’t possibly be sorrier for this disastrous mistake.

Marinette shut her bag calmly, but a storm of anger was brewing inside. Oh, Tikki would be sorry later, alright, when all she had to snack on was stale bread and Dad’s gross spinach cake.

Miracle of miracles, Adrien didn’t seem to have noticed that there had previously been pen up Marinette’s nose.

“Are you okay?” he asked, with such concern that she wondered if he hadn’t noticed after all.

“What? I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be fine, everything’s fine! The weather is fine, you’re fine—I mean _obviously_ you’re fine, just look at you, but—” Her brain caught up with her mouth. “BUT YEAH EVERYTHING’S TOTALLY FINE, NOTHING TO SEE HERE.”

“…I just heard you scream in pain? That…does not…seem fine?” Adrien sounded as if against he was speaking against his better judgement, which was probably telling him to back away slowly. His eyes suddenly widened in alarm. “Your nose is bleeding!”

“Oh…really… Hahahaha…” Marinette laughed through her gritted teeth, maliciously pulling her backpack into her lap and crushing it in her arms as droplets of blood streamed from her nostril and landed on her jacket.

Adrien rummaged through his pockets and pulled out an unused, if wrinkled, tissue. “Here,” he said, offering it to her.

She took it meekly and used it to stem the flow of blood.

 _This_ — This, right here, was exactly the reason Adrien could NEVER be Chat Noir.

* * *

“Oh, come on, Marinette, I said I was sorry!” Tikki whispered as Marinette threw her into the locker without hesitation or regret. “It wasn’t even that bad! He clearly didn’t see the pen up your nose, and he took you to the nurse’s office and stayed with you until the bell rang!”

“I’m late for class,” Marinette said stonily.

“You can’t just leave me here! What if there’s an akuma attack?”

“I’ll take my chances!” She slammed the locker door shut, ignoring her kwami banging on the other side of it and hollering her name in a squeaky voice.

* * *

It took approximately five minutes for misgivings to creep up in her mind. Tikki was right: what if there was an attack? She couldn’t risk people’s safety just for the sake of childish, petty revenge.

On the other hand, Marinette would likely never be able to look Adrien in the eye again, and her jacket, which she’d made herself, was likely ruined. Blood stains were hard to remove, especially if you couldn’t work on them right away.

She couldn’t go back to her locker right now anyways; there was no way Mme. Bustier would let her leave for a bathroom break after she’d shown up to class late. Although Adrien _had_ explained the situation to the teacher, so maybe she’d cut Marinette some slack…

Still, she was in the middle of a group activity, and as she looked around at her group members she knew she couldn’t pass up this opportunity. Alix, Nathanael, Nino, and Rose. What a stroke of luck, the very people she needed to investigate. Alya and Adrien were in a group together with Chloe and Juleka, but that was fine. Marinette already knew how busy (in Adrien’s case) or not busy (in Alya’s case) they were.

Alya kept alternating between sending her apologetic looks, envious glares, and pleading puppy dog eyes that screamed, ‘SAVE ME!’ Alas, Marinette could not save her. Marinette had a mission, and she had to see it through.

It was time for _Operation: Bee Which is Totally a Great Name Suck it Tikki_.

Unfortunately, the new name shortened to _O:BWTGNST_ which was a real mouthful, so she reluctantly continued to call it _Operation: Bee_ for convenience's sake.

“So,” she said when they decided by majority vote to take a little break. She was careful not to focus too much on Nathanael, because ever since the fire in the chemistry lab he’d been more nervous around her than ever, and she doubted her getting a classmate akumatized had helped with that at all. “How was everyone’s week?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, Marinette investigates her classmates some more and Adrien, feeling like they've taken two steps backwards with the nose bleed incident, tries to win back their progress through puns.


	9. April

_Operation: Bee_ had gone relatively well. Marinette hadn’t gotten anyone akumatized, and she’d learned that none of her group members had particularly busy schedules.

 _She_ had behaved herself; Chloe, unfortunately, hadn’t.

Marinette still didn’t know exactly what Chloe had said, but whatever it was had had Juleka running out of the classroom with a very sad expression on her face, and after she’d left, Alya and even Adrien had told Chloe off.

Chloe, of course, hadn’t been apologetic in the least, though she’d changed her tune as soon as Mood Killer came after her. Ladybug had shown up to the scene a few minutes later, regretting having left her kwami in her locker, only to find her classmates all sitting at their desks staring at the blackboard with vacant expressions. The teacher had taken Marinette’s seat.

It was a lucky thing her classmates hadn’t remembered anything after they’d been…brainwashed? Drained of their emotions? Had their souls sucked out like in the Harry Potter books with the freaky robed prison guard things? Otherwise they might’ve realized that Marinette had been the only one absent, and they might’ve connected her disappearance to Ladybug’s arrival.

The even luckier thing was that all of her classmates had been so disoriented afterwards, Ladybug had been able to leave before Adrien could approach her, something he'd made a habit of doing the past couple of months if they happened to be near each other after an akuma attack. She couldn't have handled that after defeating Mood Killer. Even a superhero suit wasn’t enough to hide her shame over the nosebleed incident.

It had been a few weeks since then, and she’d managed to work her way back to ‘Mostly Normal’ where Adrien was concerned, which unfortunately still included stammering, avoiding eye contact, and running off after she’d spent what she felt was too much time in his presence.

At least she’d made up with Tikki easily enough.

“I won’t leave you in my locker ever again,” she’d promised, handing her kwami a bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough, the ultimate indulgence.

“And I’ll never again shove anything up your nose,” Tikki had sworn, before diving into her own personal ambrosia.

As for the mission…Marinette had taken a little break. She wanted to find out for sure which of the remaining candidates would actually be willing to work with her and someone like Plagg, and she was having a hard time figuring out how to go about that.

Alya would undoubtedly be willing to work with her, and if she could put up with all of Marinette’s… _Marinette-ness_ regarding Adrien, there was no way she wouldn’t be able to put up with Plagg. But the others? A couple months ago, she would’ve said there’d be no issues with Rose and Nino, while Alix, Adrien and Nathanael were lost causes. Now she wasn’t so sure.

“I’m just going to ask them,” she declared one rainy April morning. “I’m just gonna go up to them and ask them if they’d object to being my superhero partner and having to co-exist with a sarcastic, mischievous layabout who eats their weight in cheese every hour.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say _every_ hour…” Tikki trailed off, belatedly registering the rest of Marinette’s sentence. “Are… Are you sure that’s a good idea.”

“This is gonna work, Tikki, I’m telling you. It’s genius, you’ll see.”

* * *

“Is this another one of your hypothetical scenarios?” Rose asked, eyes darting around nervously. Too nice to just run off with a pitiful excuse, too smart to not look for an escape route.

“Um…yes!” Marinette chirped, crossing her fingers behind her back.

Rose forced a friendly smile on her face. “I love those!”

“Really.” Marinette watched her left eye twitch. She probably had her fingers crossed behind her back, too. “So? How about it? You get to be a superhero, but you have to work with me, and your… _pet_ is obsessed with cheese.”

“And…is really lazy and sarcastic?” Rose checked, and Marinette _beamed_. Sweet Rose, actually listening to her babbling!

“Exactly!”

Rose chewed on her lower lip. “Well…if it’s to help people, I could work with anyone.”

To her credit, she left the, “Even _you_ , Marinette,” unspoken.

* * *

Alix didn’t even bother to spare her feelings. “I’d get sick powers, but I’d have to work with you and some cheese-brained puff ball? I guess everything comes with a price...”

Marinette contorted her lips into a shape that vaguely resembled a smile. “Oh, come on, I’m not that bad!”

She got an unimpressed look for her troubles. “Two words,” Alix said. “ _Bug Control_.”

“But you’d prefer me over Chloe, right?” Marinette asked, breaking out into a sweat. She was getting desperate for even the slightest hint of acceptance.

“I’d prefer blood-sucking mutant mosquito rats over Chloe.”

Marinette almost wept at the admission. Though whether from joy or…whatever the appropriate emotional response was to being compared to blood-sucking mutant mosquito rats, she wasn’t sure.

* * *

Getting within five feet of Nathanael was a surprisingly difficult task. In the end, she had to corner him just before the chime of the bell that signaled lunchtime was over, when he couldn’t run away.

Nathanael looked around desperately at his other classmates, but the only ones who noticed his plight were Rose, Alix, and Alya. Rose cast him a sympathetic glance but remained in her seat, and Alix smirked at him like she was glad to see someone else suffer the same nonsensical Marinette-babbling that she had. Alya actually stood up to come to Nathanael’s rescue, but Marinette bribed her with croissants via text message to look the other way.

Once Marinette asked her question, Nathanael’s expression changed from insulting panic to slightly preferable bafflement.

“I’m sorry, _what_?”

Marinette dutifully repeated, “Would you want to be a superhero if you had to—”

“Okay, I heard you,” he interrupted. “I just wanted to make sure that I hadn’t hallucinated you asking me that.”

“Ah,” Marinette said, not sure how to respond.

“Marinette…maybe you should visit the nurse’s office,” he said kindly.

“I’m fine, thanks for the concern, though!” She managed to refrain from grabbing him and shaking an answer out of him. If he kept stalling like this, the bell would ring and she’d have to return to her desk. “So?”

“Well, I guess…” Nathanael shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “It would be nice to have superpowers, and I certainly wouldn’t mind working with you, but you don’t really strike me as the hero type?”

He took in Marinette’s offended expression and rushed to explain himself, “Not that you’re not a good enough person to be a hero! Just. You’re so sweet, I see you more as the princess type.”

Well, now Marinette was conflicted. On the one hand, she didn’t object to _her_ idea of being a princess. She could kick butt in cute outfits and then return to her castle where a delicious dinner, a warm bath, and a comfy bed would all be waiting for her. On the other hand, she _did_ object to Nathanael’s idea of being a princess, which apparently meant she couldn’t _also_ be the hero and probably included being shut up in a tower waiting for a prince to rescue her.

She chalked it up to the fact that they just didn’t know each other very well; in fact, she barely knew _anything_ about Nathanael other than that he was introverted, his passion was art, he was very strong-willed even if he didn’t show it often, and he got particularly nervous around her for some reason.

So she smiled softly and said, “I’d rather be both. If I have to be the damsel in distress, then I want to be the knight in shining armour, too.”

The bell rang, and as Marinette returned to her seat, she realized she’d completely forgotten to get his opinion on Plagg.

* * *

The next day was a Saturday. The rain had cleared up overnight and it was actually really nice out, so Marinette and Alya had a little picnic in the park, spreading a blanket out on the grass to sit on and eat the lunch Alya’s mom had packed them. They’d just moved on to the dessert Marinette’s parents had provided them with when Nino joined them, explaining Adrien was about to wrap up a photo-shoot somewhere nearby and they’d agreed to meet up in the park afterwards.

Faced with the prospect of Adrien joining them and the inevitable loss of her grasp on words that would follow, Marinette decided she’d better get her question out of the way now.

Alya looked at her like she was speaking gibberish. “Marinette, come on, I know you know the answer to that one already!”

Nino barely let her finish before exclaiming, “Dude, I’d get superpowers _and_ I’d get you as my partner? Sign me up!”

He waved his arms so enthusiastically that he almost knocked Alya’s glasses off, and she pushed his hand out her scowling face so she could adjust them. “Excuse me, get in line! Marinette is _my_ best friend, and I will fight any would-be usurpers to the death over my rightful place as her superhero partner.”

Marinette wanted to hug them both. Their eagerness more than made up for the discouraging responses she’d gotten from everyone else.

Nino held up his hands in surrender. “I thought you wanted to film the action, not take part it in it.”

That…was a really good point that Marinette had forgotten as of late.

Alya deflated like a freshly baked soufflé exposed to a cold blast of air; so did Marinette, though she hid it a lot better. “Well, yeah. I guess I’d _have_ to let someone else be her partner, but you’re dreaming if you think I’d trust _you_ with the job!”

“Only the best for my girl!” she said, throwing an arm around Marinette’s shoulders.

Marinette leaned her head on Alya’s shoulder and teased, “If I let you screen all the applicants to decide whether or not they’re worthy, do you _promise_ not to fight anyone to the death?”

“How am I supposed to tell if they’re worthy if I’m not allowed to fight them to the death?”

“Whoa, whoa, who’s fighting to the death?” Adrien appeared from out of nowhere and sat down beside Nino.

It took all of Marinette’s willpower to stop herself from flailing like a drowning person.

“Me,” Alya said, giving Marinette’s shoulders a subtle but supportive squeeze. “And whoever thinks they’re hot enough to handle being my best friend’s superhero partner.”

Marinette shoved her free hand into her pocket, fingers itching to smooth out the perplexed furrow in Adrien’s brow.

“It’s a hypothetical scenario,” she said hastily, just on the off-chance that he somehow thought it wasn’t. (Which…of course it wasn’t. But for now, no one could know that besides Tikki.) “Like— Like that ‘Will you press the button’ game they have online?”

“Oh?” Adrien looked intrigued. “I think I’ve seen that one. So, try me, I get to be your superhero partner but…I have to fight Alya to the death first?”

“Nah, bro, it was like: You get to be a superhero, but Marinette is your superhero partner and you have to co-exist with a sarcastic, mischievous layabout who eats their weight in cheese every hour,” Nino recited perfectly.

“I gotta be honest, Marinette, I can’t really see a downside to having you as a superhero partner,” Adrien said, flashing her a charming smile that had her face heating up. “Unless the sarcastic cheese-obsessed glutton is supposed to be you?”

“NO!” Marinette objected, though she could tell he was joking. “I mean… The glutton is supposed to be, like, your pet? Sort of? Not really? More like a familiar, or—” She wracked her brain for a different a word, but Adrien spoke up before she could find one.

“Like one of those miniature animal companions Magical Girls always have,” he said knowledgeably, nodding his head.

“…Right,” Marinette said slowly, locking eyes with Nino who mouthed, _Anime nerd_ , as he pointed to his best friend.

Adrien didn’t notice. “You know, it’s not good to be too greedy when it comes to dairy products. I mean, the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.”

Alya tapped her fingers against Marinette’s shoulder and raised an eyebrow at her as if to say, “You sure can pick ’em.”

Marinette straightened up and shrugged Alya’s arm off in reproach.

“Well, this guy is,” she told Adrien, ignoring Alya’s pout. “He’s _very_ greedy. He’s a cat, though, not a mouse.”

“A cat that likes cheese? I see, he’s competing with the mice rather than hunting them.”

“I don’t think they’re likely to have any food shortages,” she said flatly. “He only wants camembert.”

“ _Feline-icky_ ,” he noted.

She was still getting used to him being a giant dork, but at the same time it helped her relax a little bit. If he wasn’t worried about embarrassing himself, maybe she didn’t need to be worried about embarrassing herself, either. “Yes, so you can see why it’s a hard choice… Superpowers, but at the cost of Pl—a glutton mooching off you and stinking up your house with cheese.”

“What kind of powers are we talking, here?” Nino interjected. “You never mentioned.”

Alya had been sulking ever since Marinette had pulled away from her, but now she perked up. “Yeah, would I be able to fly?”

“Could I turn invisible?”

“Shoot laser beams with my eyes?”

They all looked at her expectantly.                                                                                                                        

“Er.” Tikki refused to explain Chat Noir’s powers in detail no matter how the question was phrased, so all Marinette really knew was… “Bad luck. You, well, you’d have the power of bad luck.”

“Oh, uh…” Nino and Alya exchanged a glance, their enthusiasm dying a quick and presumably painless death.

Adrien raised his hand. “Do you get to use bad luck against the bad guys, or is it like…you _are_ bad luck and it follows you everywhere?”

Marinette thought about how she always used Lucky Charm to defeat her foes, and all the lucky things that happened to her on a day-to-day basis. That good luck streak had started when she’d become Ladybug. Since Chat Noir was supposed to be her other half…

“Probably both,” she admitted with reluctance, and Adrien put his hand down.

“Yeah, I am not pushing that button,” Alya said, and Nino agreed, “No way. I can be your tech person instead, Marinette.”

“Hey, I want to be her tech person!”

“You can be her PR manager.”

“What, and I’m supposed to trust _you_ to come up with the gadgets to keep her safe? I don’t think so!”

“I think you’d be better off hiring someone who’s at least graduated _Lycée_ to be your tech person,” Adrien stage-whispered to Marinette as their best friends argued.

They ignored him, leaving Marinette to shrink under the weight of Adrien’s full attention.

“So, how have you been? It feels like we’re ships passing in the night lately…” he prompted.

“Oh…you know.” She laughed nervously, reminding herself that she’d been conversing with him perfectly fine not two minutes ago. “Good. Everything’s…good.” There. It wasn’t exactly Shakespeare material, but it would have to do.

“What did you think of that movie we watched the other day in class?”

She didn’t make eye contact. “I, uh, I liked it? I kind of felt the book was better, though.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “Me too. I know most of our classmates preferred the film, but I can’t really understand why… The main character was really missing her _buoyant_ outlook on life that set her apart so much in the book. Still, whatever _floats_ your boat, right?”

Oh boy. “Right.”

“I heard there’s a newer version that handles her characterization better. I wonder if Mme. Bustier would let us watch it? Although since we’ve moved onto a new book, I guess that ship has probably already sailed…”

Okay, that was definitely deliberate. She lifted her gaze to meet his so he would know she was rolling her eyes, only to see something she hadn’t expected.

He had that same hopeful glint in his eyes that she’d noticed after they’d defeated Bug Control. He’d been hoping she’d accept his fist bump, but somehow it felt liked he’d been also hoping for acceptance on a deeper level. Acceptance of what, she hadn’t been sure.

Looking at him now, it was obvious. Friendship. He wanted her to accept his offer of friendship. He’d been hoping for a new friend in Ladybug, and now he was hoping for one in Marinette.

Well, she hadn’t turned him down then, and she wasn’t about to start now. “It hasn’t just sailed, Adrien. It says right on the syllabus we got at the beginning of term that we’ll only spend a set amount of time on each novel, so I’d say your ship is more than a little _dinghy-ed_ up. In fact it's probably sinking like the Titanic.”

She’d never get tired of his face lighting up like that, not even if she lived to be a hundred. “Hey, Marinette,” he said.

“Yeah?”

“I'd be your superhero partner, even if I did have to deal with bad luck and a greedy, cheese-obsessed cat.”

Marinette _knew_ Tikki was gonna rub this in her face later, but one look at Adrien's giddy smile and she just couldn’t bring herself to mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter... Adrinette friendship, probably some Ladrien interaction too, and Alya confronting Marinette about her strange behaviour ever since they got back from Christmas break. (I mean, in addition to going AWOL whenever there's an akuma attack, there are also random periods of time where she approaches her classmates one by one and subjects them to bad puns and weird questions for seemingly no reason... Alya has gotta be pretty suspicious by now.)


	10. May

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed the fic summary because it really just did not fit how the story has turned out. Even though I've mostly kept to my original outline, the tone of this fic has just done a complete 180 from what it was supposed to be at the beginning. So...drastic change in tone means it needs a new summary.
> 
> Thank you guys so much for reading and subscribing, and for leaving kudos and comments and bookmarks! Hope you are all having a wonderful day!!!

May 8th was marked by several very important events this year. It was Victory day as always, but it was also the unveiling of a statue commissioned by the city in Ladybug’s honour.

Then there was the most important event by far: Marinette’s physics test.

“Laws of motion… Solving for density, acceleration, velocity and distance… Principles of electromagnetism… This is practically gibberish!” Marinette said, flipping through her notes wildly and almost tearing a few pages in half. “I knew I should’ve studied more!”

“Marinette, relax.” Adrien ran his hands up and down her arms soothingly. “The only way you could’ve studied more is if you’d pulled an all-nighter.”

Any other time, and she might’ve melted into a puddle under his ministrations. Right now, though? She barely even noticed. “Exactly! I should’ve done that!”

“You studied plenty. Getting enough sleep is more important than cramming your head full of facts you’ll be too tired to remember the next day,” he said firmly. “Sleep gives your brain the time to organize all the stuff you went over.”

“But I _didn’t_ go over the section on electromagnetism!”

He released her shoulders. “Yes, because the teacher told us straight out that it wouldn’t be on the test and we shouldn’t waste our time with it.”

“What if she lied to us?” Marinette demanded. “What _then_ , Mr. I’m So Smart and Handsome I Don’t Need to Worry About Silly Things Like the Physics Test That’s Worth 20% of Our Final Grade?”

Adrien blinked at her. “How is my level of physical attractiveness supposed to impact how well I do on a physics test?”

“Don’t change the subject!”

“No, really. First you call Mme. Mendeleiev a liar, now it sounds like you’re accusing her of—”

“Adrien,” she said. Her tone was so menacing that the cheeky grin slid off his face and he actually took a couple steps back.

“You’re smart too, Marinette, in case you’ve forgotten. You’ll do fine, cross my heart,” he promised.

The lunch bell rang, and Marinette felt the blood drain from her face.

Adrien took her hand and repeated, “Cross my heart.”

“And hope to die,” she reminded him, but she let him tug her along behind him anyways.

* * *

“It’s so wonderful to meet you, Ladybug!” the artist who’d made her statue gushed.

She smiled and stepped forward to shake hands, ignoring the series of blinding flashes as photographers competed to get the best picture for tomorrow’s front page. “It’s wonderful to meet you too, Theo, I really can’t thank you enough for creating such a beautiful work of art to represent me! You’re so talented; I can’t imagine how much work went into making such a detailed and life-like statue.”

“I’m glad you like it, I really put my heart and soul into this piece…”

The conversation went on for several minutes, with Ladybug assuring Theo that he’d captured her likeness amazingly well, until she noticed someone in the crowd waving at her.

“Isn’t that Gabriel Agreste’s son?” Theo asked when she waved back at Adrien. “Is he your— Is he a friend of yours?”

Ladybug paid no mind to the way he abruptly cut off his original question, too busy beaming from ear to ear. “Yes, that’s Adrien. He’s helped me out in a few tough situations—I’d say he’s helped more than the police, even!” He’d also saved her from tearing her hair out in a panic at school earlier, but she chose not to mention that.

“Oh.” Theo sounded strangely crestfallen, and when she darted a glance at his face she found none of his previous enthusiasm written there. “Well, the mayor wanted me to do an interview with Nadja Chamack, so I’ll leave you to go talk to your—friend. It really was wonderful to meet you.”

“You, too, Theo!” she called after him. “I really can’t thank you enough!”

Huh. She watched him make his way to where the mayor was standing with Chloe, who had her arms crossed, and Madame Chamack, armed with her reporter’s microphone and a cameraman at her shoulder. “That was weird…” she said aloud.

“What was weird?”

She turned and there Adrien was, hair windswept and hands tucked in the pocket of his hoodie. His cheeks were flushed, too, and though it was silly to hope that it was from happiness at seeing her rather than exposure to the unusually cool breeze, her heart didn’t listen. Her heart saw Adrien’s smile and just steamrolled right over trivial things like logic and reason.

She smiled back helplessly. “Nothing,” she said, unwilling to admit she couldn’t even remember anymore. “Nice of you to come say hello, good citizen.”

“Aw, come on, Bug. The cameras aren’t close enough to hear you, cross my heart.”

“And hope to die,” she responded without thinking. Then she realized what she’d just said. “I mean! We can’t take any chances, what if they did overhear us? It’d be all over the news and the next thing you know, everyone in Paris will think it’s okay to go around calling me _Bug_.”

There, hopefully she’d babbled enough that he wouldn’t notice she’d responded the exact same way as his classmate Marinette had not four hours ago. Maybe if her common sense hadn’t been flattened and thrown out the window as soon as Adrien’s voice reached her ears, she could’ve avoided that mistake altogether.

“So, it’s only okay if it’s me?”

How did he manage a smirk that was both smug and shy at the same time? How was he even real? How had the universe not imploded yet from how utterly adorable this boy was?

And how was it that despite all that, Adrien thinking he had the upper hand still sparked her competitive streak?

“What do you think, _handsome boy_?”

The flirtatious wink was probably overkill, but if she was being honest, overkill was exactly what she was going for.

“I, uh— Um, I, I…” he stammered, and it really shouldn’t have given her a thrill to see him reduced to the incoherent mess that she’d been around him for so long, but _oh_ , did it ever.

His gaze drifted to something over her shoulder. “I, ah, an—” he squeaked out.

“An?” she prompted.

He just pointed behind her in answer.

Ladybug took one look at Theo’s literally stone face and groaned. “What did Chloe do this time?”

“I’ll help people evacuate?” Adrien managed, and then hurried away without waiting for a reply.

“And don’t come running back to play hero after, okay? Stay where it’s safe!” she called after him. No response. “Hey, did you hear me, hot stuff?”

Adrien tripped over thin air.

“Oops,” Ladybug said.

* * *

“So,” Alya said, abruptly shutting off the TV only a few episodes into their Teen Titans marathon. “What was up with the puns?”

“The puns?” Marinette barely even registered her best friend’s question, too distracted by the loss of Starfire and Raven kicking butt on her TV screen while _in each other’s bodies_.

“The puns that you suddenly started spouting a few months ago, a little before Valentine’s day? Not that I really object or anything, because they seem to have helped you find your chill around Adrien—although you _did_ accidentally startle your lover boys into almost burning down the chemistry lab, and you pissed off Ivan so much he got turned into a rampaging supervillain…”

“My lover boys?” Marinette echoed, baffled. Who was Alya talking about?

Alya ignored her. “But it’s just a _little_ confusing, because all I’ve been hearing for years is, ‘ _OMG_ , Alya, don’t laugh at my dad’s lame puns, you’re just going to encourage him!’ and ‘Dad jokes are THE WORST thing that EVER happened to the human race, Alya, you’re SO LUCKY your step-dad’s are actually funny!’ and—”

“Alright, alright, I get the picture!”

“I just want to know!” She held up her hands innocently. “So what’s the explanation? You were having a midlife crisis about thirty years too early? “

“Alya.”

“You adopted a child in secret and you’re getting some practice in for their teenage years because you don’t want them to grow up thinking mom jokes aren’t a thing?”

“ _Alya_.”

“You actually went through with stalking Adrien after you swore you wouldn’t and you found out he’s a real _pun lover_?”

“ALYA.”

Alya grinned at her, unabashed. “What’s the story? Inquiring minds want to know.”

Marinette squirmed uncomfortably in her seat, fighting the urge to bury her face in a couch cushion. “I don’t know, I guess I just…wanted to see how people would react?” Which was true, so if she was really lucky it might fool Alya into dropping the subject.

“Oh, yeah?” Alya looked far from impressed with that explanation. “And what about that hypothetical scenario with the sarcastic cheese cat from last month that you first posed to _three_ of our very reluctant classmates at different times?”

Marinette curled her hands into fists so she couldn’t give away how nervous she was by biting her nails. She had to keep her cool. She had to, or Alya would sense her weakness and move in for the kill, like when a shark caught the scent of blood.

“Has anyone ever told you you’re a bit like a shark?” Marinette blurted out.

Alya didn’t even blink. “Yes. Several people. Stop trying to change the subject.”

“I’m just saying, you really—”

“—unless you’d rather talk about how you disappear every so often and stop answering your phone even when I know for a fact that you have it on you?”

“So, let’s talk about those puns,” Marinette immediately announced, and refused to acknowledge the smug smile on her best friend’s face.

* * *

It turned out Marinette _could_ get away with changing the subject after all, as long as she was willing to narrate her epic journey from having her brain-to-mouth filter malfunction every time she so much as breathed the same air as Adrien to being able to engage in physical contact with him without dying of a heart attack on the spot. (Just. Leaving out significant details like the fact that he’d helped her take down a possessed bug exterminator and how that experience and Tikki’s advice had first led her to relax around him.)

“I’m so proud of you, Marinette!” Alya said, throwing her arms around her best friend. “My girl is all grown up and finally done causing me extreme second-hand embarrassment!”

“You’re so mean to me!” Marinette moaned, but that didn’t stop her from snuggling in closer.

There was a knock at the door. Marinette stayed in her very comfortable position for a few seconds longer, hoping one of her parents would answer it, until it became obvious that they wouldn’t and she had no choice but to drag herself away from her warm and nice-smelling Alya pillow.

It was Adrien. He’d been to her house a few times before, mostly to hang out in their usual group of four and once to study with her for the physics test, but this was the first time he’d ever shown up without an invitation.

“There’s another attack,” he panted, sounding like he’d run a marathon. “In the park. I didn’t catch the supervillain’s name, but I saw her before she changed and she was chasing after these kids and trying to swat them with a broom, kept yelling for them to stay off her lawn... Now her broom seems to make everyone it comes into contact with age to like a hundred years old in barely a second. I came by here because…it’s really close to the park and I wanted to ask if I could direct the victims to the bakery for their own safety?”

His tone was _really_ off as he spoke, but she didn’t have time right now to think about that further. “Of course! You never need to ask, we’ll do anything we can to help! I should, ah, go tell my parents to expect lots of elderly people to show up?” What she really meant was that she should go transform into Ladybug, but informing her parents of what was going on first wasn’t a bad idea.

“Right, of course.” He backed up through the door and turned around to leave.

“Be careful!” she told him, and he glanced back at her with an unreadable expression on his face and said, “You, too.”

* * *

Most days, Marinette thanked her lucky stars that she had Alya as her best friend. Today was shaping up to be one of those rare exceptions.

“Alya, stay inside!” she hissed when Alya tried to follow her out the bakery’s front door with her video camera in hand.

“ _You’re_ not staying inside!”

“ _I_ am leaving this bakery to go help elderly people cross the street safely! _You_ just want to film the action!”

“I can do both!”

“STAY. HERE.” Marinette shut the door in Alya’s face and walked away from her indignant squawking.

“You’re lucky she didn’t just follow you!” Tikki said as soon as Marinette had found some cover to transform.

“Right? That girl, honestly… Couldn’t she pick a safer obsession?” Marinette sighed. “Oh, well. Tikki, ** _spots on!_** ”

She tracked down the villain of the week (it was more like third villain of the week, but whatever…), and was totally unprepared for the sight that awaited her. An elderly woman in a wheelchair was holding a one-sided conversation with the person who was brandishing a menacing-looking broom at her.

“Dorothea, dear, don’t you think this is a tad over-dramatic?” the woman asked mildly. “Couldn’t you just pull a fake shotgun on those cudgel-butt munchkins and pretend to threaten them with it like any sensible person would?”

“I’ve told you a million times, Agnes, you can still get arrested for that, even if it’s not a real gun!” the villain said, so exasperated that she even lowered her broom for a second. “And my name’s not Dorothea anymore, it’s Old Timer! Are you deaf?”

“My hearing works better than yours, as you very well know, Dorie.”

“Dorie?” Old Timer sputtered, doubly offended now. “ _Dorie_? That’s it!”

“NO!” Ladybug cried out as the broom struck Agnes' shoulder.

Nothing happened.

Agnes blinked. “You didn’t happen to forget that I’m older than you, did you? That’s the sixth time this month!”

Ah, Ladybug understood now. The broom accelerated aging until the victim reached Old Timer’s age, but since Agnes was the older of the two…

“You’re going to miss Bingo night with the girls if you carry on with this nonsense, Dorie. Doesn’t a nice game of Bingo sound better than all this messing about?”

“Well, actually, now that you mention it—” A purple outline of a butterfly flashed across her face, framing her eyes like a mask. “Oh, get out of my way! I don’t have time for _your_ nonsense; I have a Miraculous to steal!”

“A Miraculous?” Agnes wrinkled her nose as she took her sweet time wheeling her chair out of the villain’s way. “Kids these days and their slang words…”

“I’m two days younger than you, Aggy!” Old Timer shrieked, stomping her foot. “Get off your high horse, you old bat!”

Okay, that was enough observing for Ladybug.

“I don’t think you’re in a position to be calling anyone old, Old Timer!” Ladybug shouted, twirling her yo-yo needlessly because…well…it looked cool. People were intimidated when she looked cool, even supervillains, or else they were awe-struck.

Either would’ve done at the moment, but unfortunately her current foe was unfazed.

“Flashy show-off!” Old Timer grumbled, directing her attention back to the superhero. “Just you wait, you munchkin, I’m going to _sweep the floor_ with you!”

Ladybug smiled. “ _Now_ we’re getting somewhere.”

* * *

“ ** _MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!_** ” she croaked out as she feebly tossed her yo-yo in the air, and swore she could hear angels singing as her back pain vanished along with her false teeth, replaced by her real set.

Adrien came running as soon as the magic had subsided. “Ladybug!”

“Nice work, Adrien!” She held up her hand and offered him a fist bump, which he eagerly accepted. “I couldn’t have done it without you!”

“Ahh, I wouldn’t say that,” he said bashfully, rubbing the back of his slowly reddening neck. “All I did was—”

“All you did was get me the broom, which was where the akuma was located,” she reminded him sternly. She preferred him _not_ throwing himself into danger, but more often than not he did it anyways and she wasn’t going to let him shrug off the credit he deserved. “I couldn’t even move by that point!”

“Hey, I think you were doing awesome, all things considered. And you looked pretty good for ninety—OW!” He massaged the spot of his arm where she’d pinched him. “I’m just saying, at least you know you’ll age well, LB. I’m probably gonna be bald by the time I reach that age.”

She wagged her finger at him and scolded, “There’s no use crying over milk that hasn’t been spilled yet, you whippersnapper.”

“Keep trying, dear.” It was Agnes, eyeing her in sympathy. “Your impression could use more than a little work.”

“I’m sure you’ll get it one day,” Dorothea said with obvious indifference, wheeling Agnes’ chair past them.

Ladybug’s earrings beeped, and she and Adrien glanced at each other.

“Do either of you need help with anything? We could—”

Agnes smiled at them both. “We’re fine, thank you.”

“Yes, yes, thank you for saving me,” Dorothea said impatiently. “Now go back to making goo-goo eyes at each other, or whatever it is you silly young lovebirds do. Aggy and I have a Bingo game to get to.”

“Have a nice day, dears!”

Ladybug stared after them until they rounded the street corner.

“So, um.” She decided to pretend Dorothea hadn’t said anything, even if her cheeks did feel hot enough to ignite a candle. “Do you think we should be concerned about that shotgun, or…”

“Oh, uh!” Adrien cleared his throat. “She did say it was fake…”

Her earrings beeped again.

“You better _bug out_ quick, Cinderella,” Adrien said, and she might’ve been imagining it, but she thought his smile looked just the slightest bit sad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alya and Marinette are so physically affectionate with each other I die from the cuteness every time I think about it. 
> 
> This was supposed to have way more Adrinette...oh well. There'll be more later.
> 
> Next chapter Ladybug has to protect the Agrestes from an akuma victim. Also, Marinette’s deadline is coming up soon and Tikki reluctantly reveals something that she maybe should’ve told Marinette a lot sooner.


	11. Surveillance

Full disclosure: when Alya had mentioned she was thinking about setting up a Ladybug blog a few months ago, Marinette had totally thought she was joking.

Sitting at her desk with her eyes glued to her monitor and the words ‘ **THE** **LADYBLOG** ’ in giant red lettering, it was abundantly clear that Alya had not been joking. At all.

“So, what do you think?” Alya demanded, hovering over her shoulder.

Full disclosure: what Marinette _thought_ was that her life was officially over.

What Marinette _said_ was, “It’s wonderful! You’re really off to a great start, Alya, with that footage from the battle with Old Timer and your post…on evidence supporting the theory…that Ladybug…is actually a teenager…in _collège_ …”

Wow, Marinette’s life was definitely _over_.

“Right?” Alya laughed so happily Marinette almost felt bad for her internal panic and growing horror. “The site’s been up for less than a day and I’ve already gotten so many hits and subscriptions!”

“How… How many exactly,” Marinette managed to ask, already knowing she would regret the question as soon as she got her answer.

Alya clicked on the small ‘Statistics’ link in her user menu’s drop-down list, and Marinette read the numbers, careful to keep her expression curious but not _too_ curious and definitely not filled with dread.

June 1st: the day Alya Cesaire’s Ladyblog was officially created.

June 1st: the day Marinette Dupain-Cheng almost died of a heart attack.

* * *

Her day only got worse from there.

Alya bragged that she’d gotten texts from nearly all of their classmates, including Adrien, saying they’d subscribed to her new blog right away. Then Marinette’s parents poked their heads into her room to congratulate Alya and assure her they were following the blog, too.

(MARINETTE’S. _PARENTS_.)

Then the girls met up with Adrien and Nino in the park for their weekly picnic, and Alya and Nino got into a lengthy discussion on what they thought Ladybug was really like beneath the mask. At least Adrien stayed out of that one and talked with Marinette about their favourite movies instead, but still.

(Although, it really was nice to know that Adrien didn’t speculate about his friend’s identity behind her back. Or in front of her face, even if he didn’t _know_ it was her face… Whatever, this was getting confusing.)

Alya’s phone chimed, interrupting both conversations. “There’s another villain!” Alya exclaimed. “Someone saw her jumping through the trees along the Seine, she’s heading this way!”

Of course she was. Of. _Course_.

* * *

Getting away from her friends turned out to be a lot easier than expected. After failing to convince Alya they should quarantine themselves in the bakery, or even just _not_ run head-first into danger, Marinette resigned herself to waiting for an opportunity to slip away without being noticed so she could transform and cleanse the akuma before any of her friends (read: Alya) got themselves hurt.

But then Adrien suggested she go to the bakery anyways, by herself, to check on her parents. “You should let them know what’s going on, and that they should stay inside.”

She was too grateful for the excuse to wonder why he hadn’t suggested she just phone her parents, which was the quickest and most convenient option.

“Yeah, I’ll do that! I’ll meet up with you guys afterwards, be careful!”

“No worries, Marinette, we’ll keep her from getting into too much trouble until you get back!” Nino said, latching onto Alya.

“Thanks!” She ducked around to the side entrance of her house and checked that the coast was clear.

Tikki zipped out of her purse. “You know, Marinette, I can’t say I’ve ever had a Ladybug whose best friend unintentionally made their life so difficult!”

“Right?” Marinette groaned. “‘The _Ladyblog_ ’… This is karma, isn’t it? This is what happens when you get someone akumatized through your terrible puns, your best friend makes a blog that’s main purpose is to stalk you.”

“I don’t think that’s the case, but we really have to transform now, before someone comes along!”

“Alright, alright. Tikki, **_spots on_**!”

* * *

Ladybug landed at the base of _Fontaine du Palmier_ at the exact same time the villain did. Her friends were all there, to her horror, so she planted herself firmly between them and the danger and said, “I don’t know what it is you’re planning to do here, but—”

The villain ignored her, eyes fixed on something over her shoulder. “Adrien Agreste, I presume?” she asked, and Ladybug fought the urge to turn and look at him. “I am Mother Nature. Your father, with his grand fashion empire, has declared war on nature. Now I declare war on _him_.”

Ladybug nearly dropped her yo-yo.

“What,” Adrien squeaked.

“I’m sure we can all agree that it’s not necessary to involve anyone else in our conflict. I’ll be back by midnight to take on your father, Adrien, if he’s brave enough to face me. If he’s not…” Mother Nature shrugged, a tiny seed slipping through her fingers. When it hit the ground, a massive tree instantly sprouted in its place, splitting slabs of concrete into hundreds of pieces with ease and carrying Mother Nature up into the sky.

“Midnight!” she called out, and then she was gone, leaping through the treetops back the way she’d come.

Ladybug finally relaxed her stance and turned to look at her friends. Nino was staring up at the giant tree in shock, Alya was trying to film the tree and Ladybug at the same time, and Adrien…looked like he was torn between panicking and rolling his eyes.

“Excuse me, Adrien Agreste?” Ladybug asked in her ‘I’m a Professional’ voice. “Would you mind answering a few questions for me?”

Adrien looked startled by the impersonal way she’d addressed him, but when she flicked her gaze to Alya’s phone, his eyes lit up with understanding. He’d been caught helping her enough times that people were getting suspicious their run-ins weren’t actually coincidental. Which they were. Totally. Completely.

“Of course, Ladybug, whatever you need,” he promised, matching her polite and distant tone.

They walked off, and though Nino had to hold Alya back from following them, they eventually reached a distance where Ladybug felt confident they wouldn’t be overheard.

“Are you alright, Adrien?” She could touch his shoulder, right? That wouldn’t be weird, would it? Her hand was halfway through the air when she decided against it.

“I’m fine,” he said, eyes locked on her hand falling awkwardly back to her side. He looked like he wanted to reach for it, and Ladybug was at once both relieved and disappointed that he didn’t. “She didn’t even touch me, honest.”

“What was up with her grudge against your dad? She accused him of declaring war on nature…”

“Oh, well…” Adrien’s face flushed. “For a really long time, my father was careful to keep to certain standards so his company would have a reputation as the most environmentally conscious in Paris’ fashion industry, you know? But recently it seems like he’s decided there are better uses for that money, and he’s, well, taken the ‘friendly’ out of his eco-friendly policies.”

“And now Mother Nature wants revenge,” Ladybug groaned. “What a mess!”

Adrien couldn’t seem to look her in the eye, and she realized he was embarrassed, or even ashamed. This time she didn’t hesitate to put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, it’s not your fault. You don’t make the policies. Besides, if Mother Nature is really that fired up about the changes, there are other, better ways she could’ve gone about protesting them.”

“You’re right,” Adrien said, smiling just a little. “Thanks, LB.”

She took her hand off his shoulder. “Don’t thank me yet. I still have to save the akuma victim, but first…” She glanced at Alya, still filming obsessively, and Nino, cheerfully blowing bubbles into the sky. “I better send those two packing.”

* * *

Getting Alya and Nino to go home was a chore, but eventually she managed it. The next logical step was to inform Gabriel Agreste of the threat to his safety, but that ended up being even harder than shooing her best friend away from a juicy news story.

“Just watch, he’s going to be ‘too busy’ to even say hello,” Adrien predicted, complete with finger quotes.

Ladybug was a little more optimistic. Obviously Adrien knew his father way better than she did, but really, who just ignored a supervillain _declaring war_ on them?

Gabriel Agreste, apparently.

“Mr. Agreste is in a meeting,” Nathalie Sancoeur informed her, with a touch more respect than Marinette had gotten the one time she’d visited Adrien’s house. “He requests that you come back later, at six o’clock sharp.”

She walked away, heels clacking against the floor tiles, leaving Ladybug to stare after her incredulously.

“I can’t believe this.”

Adrien shuffled his feet and stared at the ground. “I know, I’m sorry, they’re so—”

“Hey, hey, no.” She took his hand. “Not your fault, Adrien. It’s not that big of a deal anyways, it’s actually a good thing if you think about it!”

“Really?” he asked skeptically, twining their fingers together. “It’s a good thing?”

“Yes, because it means I have free reign to handle the situation however I want without even considering his input. Well, for a few hours, at least.”

Adrien’s embarrassment vanished, and his lips lifted up at one corner in a lopsided smirk. “I like the way you think, Lady Luck.”

* * *

There were security cameras all over the mansion, so Ladybug asked the guard in charge of watching the footage to keep an eye out for Mother Nature. Then she made an excuse to use the bathroom, the one place that _didn’t_ have security cameras, so she could de-transform and have access to her phone.

She shot a text to Alya, Nino, and Adrien, explaining that her parents hadn’t let her leave again after she’d told them a supervillain was on the loose. She debated on what excuse to give her parents, but in the end she told them she was with Alya and she’d be out late so they shouldn’t wait up. She’d regret it later when Alya inevitably demanded to know why she’d lied to her parents, but she didn’t doubt that Alya would cover for her. Better to be in trouble with her best friend than her parents.

After she transformed back, she asked Adrien to take her to his room so she could use his computer.

“You guys have some kind of security system to keep intruders out, right?” Ladybug swung back-and-forth in Adrien’s desk chair as she clicked open a news broadcast on his first monitor, the most reliable breaking news twitter Paris had on his second, and the Ladyblog on his third.

“Yeah, but only my father and his personal bodyguard have the code to activate a lockdown manually,” Adrien said, coming to stand right behind her. “What are you looking for?”

“Mother Nature said she wouldn’t show up until midnight. I want to know what she plans to do until then.” She glanced at him as he leaned over her shoulder to look at the monitor in front of her. “Do you not have another chair?”

“No, just the couch, and it’s pretty much there for decoration. I don’t have friends over very often. Or. Well. Ever, actually. So I never thought I would need another chair.” Before Ladybug could react to that, he swiftly changed the subject. “You think she’s going to keep her promise?”

Ladybug let it slide. For now, at least. “I’m not sure, but whoever controls the victims always seems to intervene when they go against orders. That didn’t happen this time, so whatever it is Mother Nature is planning, she probably has a stamp of approval from the person pulling the strings.”

“We should come up with a proper name, something gender-neutral. It limits our options a bit, but it’s still doable, like we could use _Evil Butterfly Fanatic_ , or—” Adrien trailed off as he took in her withering glare. “Okay, right, we can come back to that later.”

Ladybug just rolled her eyes and turned back to the monitors. “She doesn’t seem to be causing trouble anywhere, and if I could trust her to stay quiet I’d wait for midnight and set up a trap. But I can’t, so it’s my responsibility to track her down and take her out as soon as possible so no one gets hurt…but if I leave here, she might slip by me and come after your father…”

Her shoulders slumped, head falling forward a little so she could rest her forehead on the heels of her palms. It was at times like this that she couldn’t help but resent the fact that Chat Noir got six more months of peace than she had.

Here she was, spread too thin and unsure if she could pull this off without anyone getting hurt, and somewhere out there was the future Chat Noir, eating lunch with family or playing video games with friends. Having _fun_ , totally unaware that Ladybug could really use some help right now.

“Hey.” Adrien crouched down beside her. “You’re not alone, you know. Ask the police to keep an eye on the city. Between them and all these news feeds, I’m sure you’ll know right away if she tries anything.”

Ladybug tilted her head to the side so she could see him looking up at her. For once she barely noticed how green his eyes were, or how beautiful, and instead of getting lost in his gaze she found she had to look away. Had to tell herself she was embarrassed, rather than overwhelmed by the gentle concern she’d seen written all over his face.

“It’s the same issue. If I leave to go talk to the police, she could sneak in…”

He nudged her shoulder until she looked at him again, and when she did he grinned at her. “You superheroes always overcomplicate things…”

He held up his cell phone.

* * *

“I do _not_ overcomplicate things,” Ladybug protested for the fifth time in the past two hours, frowning grumpily at the ceiling as she spun around and around.

“You absolutely do,” Adrien told her, giving her chair another spin. “ _Absolutely_. You are the queen of overcomplicating things, Bugaboo.”

Ladybug put a halt to her spinning and looked at him. “That one’s new.”

She had to hold back a dreamy sigh; he always looked so pretty when his cheeks turned that shade of pink.

“Yes, well.” He cleared his throat and turned her chair back to facing the monitors. “Anything interesting happening?”

“Noooooooo- _pe_.” She dragged out the first syllable and made a popping sound to go with the second, then squinted at the computer screen in the middle. “Oh wait, some nasty old politician guy called me a ‘vigilante upstart’ that thinks I can get away with doing whatever I want.”

“You’re so cute, you probably could,” Adrien mumbled under his breath.

Ladybug decided he hadn’t meant for her to hear that and she should just pretend she hadn’t. “If he wants to deal with these akuma victims, he’s welcome to try. I reserve the right to have Alya film his humiliating defeat and my heroic rescue, though.”

“I’d pay to see that.”

“Hmmm, I’ll keep that in mind, handsome boy.”

“AH, NO, I meant— I meant _money_ , I meant I’d pay money, not—” He cut himself off, seeming to realize that anything he could possibly say next would just make things worse.

Ladybug giggled. “I _know_ you meant money, you doofus. Hey, you watch the monitors for a while.”

She stood up from her chair, crossed the room, and ignored the choking sound he made when she flopped onto his bed.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” he muttered darkly, even as he sat down in the desk chair to watch the monitors for her. “The _death_ of me, okay? I am going to DIE because you called me ‘handsome boy’ and _laid down on my bed_ , for fuc—”

She rolled over and nuzzled her face into his pillow. It smelled really nice… Maybe she should take a nap…

She dozed off to the background noise of Adrien’s muffled swearing interspersed with the words, “She _nuzzled my **pillow**_ ,” repeated over and over.

* * *

Adrien let her sleep an entire hour.

“I’m sorry,” he said after he’d shaken her shoulder lightly to wake her. “I would’ve let you sleep longer, but I’m not sure how your magic works and I was worried you might transform back.”

“Are you kidding me? If anything, you let me sleep too long…” She yawned as she sat up and stretched her arms, drawing out the movement longer than necessary. She had her eyes closed, but she didn’t kid herself: Adrien was totally checking out her muscles right now and probably wishing the superhero suit wasn’t in the way.

Sure enough, when she blinked her eyes open he was staring at her arms and looking dazed. She brought a hand to her mouth to hide her smile. “You’re supposed to be watching the monitors.”

He whipped around to face the screens so fast she was worried he’d broken something.

“And my magic doesn’t run out unless I use my Lucky Charm… Don’t tell anyone, though.”

“You know I won’t, Ladybug.” He didn’t turn back to look at her, but his voice was so sincere when he spoke she could almost picture the expression on his face, soft and warm and brimming over with affection…

“About an hour left, right? Until I can meet your father.” Ladybug stood up and eyed Adrien’s rock climbing wall. Maybe she should do some exercise to shake away the fog clouding her thoughts.

Adrien’s voice was completely different when he spoke again, tense and yet drained at the same time. “Right.”

“I’m sure he’ll be okay with our plan, Adrien,” she tried to reassure him, but it obviously wasn't enough because he replied, “Oh, I doubt he’ll hang around long enough to listen.”

“Adrien.” She went to him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

“What if he doesn’t like you?” the words tumbled out of Adrien’s mouth in a rushed whisper. “He might yell at you…”

“So what? I square up against supervillains every other day, I can handle a little yelling.”

“And you’ll still—” He couldn’t seem to get the rest of the words out, but she heard them all anyways.

Ladybug ran her gloved fingers through his hair near the base of his neck. “I’ll still be your friend. Cross my heart.”

He finally turned to look at her, and her hand slid to his cheek. He was so much closer than she’d expected, but she couldn’t bring herself to pull away.

“And hope to die,” he murmured, and tilted his head up to meet her kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn’t supposed to be 3k of Ladrien fluff. It was supposed to include a Very Serious Discussion between Marinette and Tikki, which will now take place next chapter instead. Along with more Ladrien fluff, in case your teeth haven’t rotted yet.
> 
> Also I can’t believe I never noticed that Nathalie’s last name is literally French for ‘heartless’? Like wow the writers are not subtle at all… I almost can’t believe it though, how do you create a character like precious child Adrien and then give him a neglectful piece of crap for a father and make his day-to-day caregiver _heartless_? Where do you find the strength of will to do that??? 
> 
> Someone needs to adopt Adrien and save him from Gabriel and Nathalie. Anyone, really. The Gorilla. Madame Bustier. Jagged Stone and his crocodile. I'd even accept Plagg with no explanation as to how he managed to legally adopt a human being. Just… _anyone_. The only adult in the ML universe who I wouldn't accept is Hawkmoth, that's literally it.


	12. Warning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to warn you, there's some stuff in this chapter based on speculations of how the kwamis and the Miraculous stones work, and I'm not sure it counts as a spoiler, but just...read at your own risk, I guess?

If Ladybug had had a list of ‘Top 10 Most Irresponsible Things I’ve Ever Done’, kissing Adrien Agreste while she was supposed to be on the lookout for Mother Nature probably would’ve been on it somewhere.

And yet she couldn’t stop. His mouth was so soft and warm under hers, and clumsy in a way that made it obvious that he was just as inexperienced as she was—maybe even more so.

At some point it occurred to her that the way he was craning his neck to reach her was probably really uncomfortable, so she broke their kiss and hauled him out of the desk chair. He dove right back in the second she’d pulled him down  to sit beside her on the couch, and his eagerness made her smile until he kissed her into forgetting how to do anything but kiss him back.

She lost track of time, her arms looped around his neck and his hands tentative on her waist. Then a loud beep jolted her out of her smooching-induced haze.

It turned out to be nothing—one of Alya’s new followers had caught sight of a few kids cosplaying as Ladybug and the villains she’d faced, and had mistaken them for the real things—but the damage was done. She remembered that she had a job to do and she couldn’t just sit around all day kissing the boy who was nice enough to pretend not to notice her bad breath.

(Note to self: bring mints next time.)

They had monitors to watch, and a meeting with Adrien’s father in thirty minutes. Plus, the guard she’d directed to watch the footage from the security cameras had probably been able to see them canoodling on the couch together.

(Note to self: pick a more private location next time.)

Ladybug stayed at the desk chair while Adrien went back to his couch, and he was so quiet for the next twenty minutes that she thought maybe he’d dozed off or something. He hadn’t; when she went to rouse him for the meeting she found very much awake.

Just lying there on the couch, staring up at the ceiling with an awed expression on his face.

Touching his fingertips to his lips.

(Note to self: please let there be a next time.)

* * *

Meeting Gabriel Agreste went almost exactly the way Adrien had predicted it would, only slightly better. No yelling, and Mr. Agreste gave her permission carry out her plan, but he didn’t stick around to listen to the details and he coldly threatened to _ruin_ her if she failed to ensure his safety or that of any of his valuables.

He didn’t have anything to say about the safety of _his own son_ , unless Adrien was supposed to be counted among his valuables.

Ladybug had honestly never wanted to punch anyone so badly in her life.

Adrien took one look at her face as she watched his father walk away and told her, “I know he’s kind of a jerk, but I _would_ be a little upset if you punched him.”

“Okay, well, what do you mean by ‘a little’? Because if it’s a _little_ little, I really think the satisfaction might outweigh—” She cut herself off when he took her hand and towed her along behind him. “Where are we going?”

“Back to my room. There’s a spot halfway up my staircase that the security cameras can’t see.” He gave her a cheeky grin, and she took a second to imagine him grinning at her like that with lips swollen from kissing her too much.

If there even was such a thing as kissing her too much when it came to Adrien. There probably wasn’t.

“We have a supervillain to catch,” she reminded him, trying to sound stern, but she couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her when he leaned in close to whisper in her ear, “And _six hours_ until then, Bugaboo.”

* * *

Despite what he’d said, he didn’t try anything when they reached his room. Instead they went back to taking turns watching the monitors, but they couldn’t stop talking about everything under the sun. Favourite colours and foods and songs. Worst fears, happiest memories, loneliest moments.

.

(“You’re _really_ scared of dragonflies? Honestly and truly?”

“They prey on ladybugs,” she whined, crossing her arms and puffing her cheeks out in annoyance. “They’re insects but they prey on ladybugs, even though ladybugs are insects, too! Dragonflies are vicious, cannibalistic predators!”

He blew her a kiss, and when she asked why, all he had to say was, “You’re just too cute when you talk about canni- _bug_ -istic predators.”)

.

(“Here, you have to listen to this one,” he said, scrolling through his music library until he reached the song he was looking for. “It reminds me of how I feel when I’m with you.”

So she listened, and by the time the song was over she was blinking back tears. It wasn’t a romantic song, but it was light and happy and it made you feel like you’d been cut free from all the bad things in life that weighed you down.

“I make you feel like that?” she whispered, and his smile was so sweet and shy when he nodded at her that she had to rain a dozen kisses all over his face.)

.

(“I really would’ve punched him, you know. You deserve more than this.”

Adrien deserved a father who embarrassed him in front of his friends by showing baby pictures and prattling on about how proud he was to have such an amazing son, not by making threats and barely giving his only child the time of day.

“I know. And you know, you deserve more than taking on the world by yourself? I’d do anything to be able to help you, I mean _really_ help you.”

For a heart-stopping moment, she could see it so clearly: a blond-haired, green-eyed boy racing beside her as they chased villains across rooftops. Her kind and brave and silly Chat Noir tugging his Ladybug away from prying eyes as their stones counted down, kissing her in some secret corner of Paris as their magic ran out. Walking home as Adrien and Marinette, holding hands and laughing, sharing the thrill of their victory. Sharing their secrets.

All she said was, “You already do.”)

* * *

By the time she’d cleansed the akuma, Ladybug was ready to throw in the towel and admit that Adrien was _meant_ to be Chat Noir.

He could keep up with her spur-of-the-moment tactics. He could switch between distracting the enemy to falling back while she took the lead with only the briefest of signals. When their plan went sideways, he was right there with her in improvising a way out of the mess they’d landed in.

If she was reckless, he proceeded with caution; if she hesitated too long, he urged her to action.

If he was feeling low, she lifted him up; if his ego inflated like a blimp, she brought him back down to earth.

She held up her hand for a fist bump, and he accepted it without a moment’s thought.

She wasn’t ready to go around calling him her other half no matter what Tikki had said about Yin and Yang, but calling him her Chat Noir?

Maybe she was ready for that.

* * *

She landed on her balcony as quietly as possible, dropping through the trap door onto her bed as her earrings beeped one last time. Then she finally released her transformation, and poor Tikki fell into her hands, exhausted after nearly twelve hours of powering the suit.

Marinette set her kwami down on the pillow carefully and then lay down herself, thoughts of texts messages from Alya and goodnight kisses from Adrien whirling through her mind and keeping her up for what felt like hours.

When she woke the next morning she couldn’t stop yawning, but she also couldn’t stop smiling. Even when her parents looked at her funny. Even when Alya badgered her over the phone about where she’d been last night.

“You have a secret lover, don’t you? Admit it, some Romeo or Juliet swept you off your feet yesterday, and instead of providing me with details or even a warning like a _good_ best friend would have, you left me in the dark and used me as a shield against your mother’s scary interrogation tactics!”

“Umm…well… I wouldn’t say you’re right…but I also wouldn’t say you’re wrong?”

Marinette pulled the phone away from her ear, fearing she’d go deaf from Alya’s screeching.

“Right, well…” Marinette said when the noise finally stopped. “Thanks for covering for me, Alya, I owe you a million croissants! _Seeyoulaterloveyoubye!_ ”

She hung up before Alya could start screeching at her again.

* * *

It was late in the afternoon when Tikki finally woke, and Marinette was ready. She had it all planned out in her mind.

“Tikki,” she would say, “you were right the entire time. Adrien is meant to be Chat Noir. I was silly to even attempt to deny the inevitable, and I am very sorry for all the crap I put you through. Please accept my humblest apologies. And this small mountain of cookie dough. And this tub of ice cream.”

Although, maybe hovering inches from Tikki’s face as she blinked her eyes open wasn’t the best idea.

“ _EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK_!” Tikki shrieked. For such a little thing, she really had a strong set of lungs.

“Tikki,” Marinette began when the shrieking stopped. “You were right—”

“Marinette, stop,” Tikki interrupted. “As much as I enjoy hearing you admit I’m right, there’s something I really need to talk to you about first.”

“What? But— Oh, right!” She plopped the desserts down in front of Tikki. “Probably should’ve opened with this.”

“Tikki,” she began again as her kwami somehow managed to fit a spoonful of cookie dough nearly the size of her head into her mouth. “You’ve been right this entire time, about everything ever—”

Tikki swallowed her mouthful without chewing. “Marinette, I need to talk to you _right_ _now_. It’s about— It’s about Adrien.”

“That’s actually what I wanted to—”

“You’re not listening! Stop talking! I. Need. To. Talk. To. You. NOW. Okay?”

Marinette nodded.

“Alright.” Tikki shoveled small scoops of ice cream into her mouth and gulped them down quickly one after the other. “So. We’re going to talk about Adrien. But first…we’re going to talk about Hawkmoth.”

“Hawkmoth?” Marinette repeated, baffled now. “Who’s Hawkmoth?”

“That is a good question, Marinette, with multiple answers, one of which is: I have no idea.”

“Uhh…”

“Another answer—” Tikki took a deep breath. “—is that Hawkmoth is a Miraculous holder. Like you.”

“What.”

“I don’t know Hawkmoth’s civilian identity, but they’re the person that’s been sending the akumas. They’re a Miraculous holder and they have a kwami, that’s where they get their powers.”

“No!” Marinette protested.

“Yes,” TIkki said.

“No!”

“Yes.”

“ _NOOOOOO!_ ”

“Marinette. Yes.”

“Okay…but NO. Because you said—” Marinette fought through her panic to argue, “You said that Ladybug and Chat Noir are like Yin and Yang, right? There’s no room for a third Miraculous—”

“Have you ever heard of the five Chinese elements?”

“… _Please_ tell me you’re joking and there _aren’t_ actually **_five other Miraculous stones_** that you _completely failed_ to mention to me until now?”

A girl could dream, right?

“Surprise?” Tikki said meekly.

Apparently not.

* * *

It was another hour before Marinette’s accusations died down and her curiosity was appeased.

Five other Miraculous stones and kwamis, tied to the five Chinese elements: Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal. The elements in turn were tied to the four seasons, except for Earth, which was tied to the changing of seasons.

Metal corresponded to fall, and this year there had been someone waiting to accept the butterfly Miraculous when it appeared. Their kwami had sensed they would abuse their new powers, and he’d sent out some kind of distress signal to the other kwamis.

“We knew we’d have to choose a new hero to keep the balance,” Tikki explained. “Fire works best against Metal, but we didn’t have time to wait for summer.  The first stone we had access to was Earth’s, but Earth strengthens Metal… The second stone we had access to—”

“Was Ladybug’s,” Marinette finished for her. “But I don’t understand—I didn’t hear anything about akuma attacks on the news before I got my Miraculous. If Hawkmoth was already out there, how come the trouble didn’t start until after I showed up?”

“Hawkmoth’s kwami is very weak when it first wakes. He undergoes a metamorphosis—from an egg, to a caterpillar, to a chrysalis, and finally, to a butterfly. We were lucky that I had enough time to prepare you before Hawkmoth’s kwami reached his caterpillar stage.”

Marinette didn’t want to ask. She didn’t.

She asked anyways. “What stage would you say he’s in now?”

Tikki winced. “The chrysalis stage.”

“So…he’s going to get stronger. Like, a _lot_ stronger.”

“That’s why I’ve been pushing so hard for you to find your partner, so that you’ll be ready when Hawkmoth’s kwami reaches his peak. Ladybug is most powerful when working alongside Chat Noir.”

It was on the tip of Marinette’s tongue to say that she’d finally chosen someone. She’d chosen Adrien.

Tikki spoke before she could. “That’s where the real danger comes in. Hawkmoth _knows_ you’re looking for Chat Noir, and that you’ll be more powerful once you team up. Whoever Hawkmoth is, they’ll want to prevent that, so if they turn on the news and hear that famous model Adrien Agreste has been seen helping out Ladybug a lot, they might get the impression that you intend to choose Adrien.”

“The attack yesterday,” she whispered numbly. “Mother Nature going after Adrien’s father… It wasn’t an accident.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Tikki agreed. “It was a test. Hawkmoth wanted to see what Adrien’s capable of and how you two work together.”

“Why didn’t you warn me about this sooner?” Marinette demanded. “Why did you let me endanger Adrien like this—”

“Because I didn't want your fear and panic to cloud your judgement. Nothing's going to happen to Adrien.”

“But you said Hawkmoth doesn’t want me to have a partner!”

“I did, and it’s true. But it’s also true that Hawkmoth doesn’t know where the Miraculous will appear. _I_ don’t even know where it will appear! The only person who will know is whoever is meant to be Chat Noir. They’ll be drawn to it, like you were drawn to the earrings, and that’s why Hawkmoth won’t hurt them. Not until they’ve led the way to the stone.”

“They’ll be drawn to it? I don’t understand! You said I was supposed to choose, you _said_ it was my choice!” Marinette was on the verge of tears by this point.

“Chat Noir is your other half,” Tikki said gently. “I don’t know how much is choice and how much is fate, but as long as you look hard enough, you’ll know who it is. It's important that you know so you can protect them until they find the stone, and once they have that, they’ll be able to protect themselves.”

“So… Adrien—”

“If it’s him, you _can_ protect him, Marinette. I promise you he’ll be okay. But if it’s not, then Adrien hanging around Ladybug is only going to put him in danger that could easily be avoided.”

Tikki held her gaze. “Do you know if it’s him? Answer honestly, because if it _is_ him, there’s no avoiding it no matter what you might want.”

Marinette counted out her heartbeats. One. Two. Three. All the way to ten.

“No,” Marinette said, refusing to even consider whether or not she was lying. “It’s not him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...that was like 50% Ladrien fluff, 10% me being too lazy to write out the fight scene with Mother Nature, 5% me butchering the five Chinese elements (I'm so sorry), and then the rest was info-dumping and Tikki setting Marinette back to square one with her horrible timing. (Don't worry, the Solstice will happen soon, so you're not going to get another 11 chapters of Marinette being stubborn and refusing to see what's right in front of her.)
> 
> Next chapter, Ladybug tries to break up with Adrien without actually using the words, "It's not you, it's me," or resorting to playing a clip from one of the many superhero movies where the hero breaks up with his civilian girlfriend to protect her.


	13. Joy Ride

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol so last chapter I phrased the ending really weirdly, and it changed the meaning around from what I intended so I went back and edited it. 
> 
> Basically, I just wanted to clarify that _Marinette_ is the one who says, "It's not him." Marinette is to blame, and Tikki is only guilty of info-dumping at the wrong time.

“—and that’s why we can’t be together. I just can’t date a civilian when there’s an evil butterfly megalomaniac running around. I’m sorry, Adrien.”

She inhaled. Exhaled. Stared directly into those wide eyes, filled with unspoken accusations.

“Oh, this is hopeless!” Marinette exploded, scowling at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. “I sound like I’m reading from a script!”

“Hmmm? You’re doing just fine, it’s perfect. Perfect mix of unwavering resolve and sincere regret,” Tikki mumbled.

The praise probably would’ve been more encouraging if Tikki hadn’t been poking through a drawer full of toothpaste tubes rather than paying attention to Marinette’s breakup rehearsal. Not that you could really breakup with someone you hadn’t actually been dating in the first place, but that was the best description she could find for her situation with Adrien.

Really. She’d googled it. The first thing that came up was a TV Tropes page.

A. TV. Tropes. Page. (It’s Not You, It’s My Enemies.)

Marinette’s forehead hit the mirror with a loud _thunk_. “How is this my life?” she moaned.

“Strawberry-flavoured toothpaste,” Tikki whispered, stroking the pinkish-red tube. “Marinette is so lucky. I wish I had teeth to brush…”

“Tikki!” Marinette whined. “Pay attention to my romance woes! This is technically your fault!”

Tikki put the toothpaste down. “I know, and I’m sorry. I should’ve told you sooner. In my defense, I thought he was the Yang to your Yin and I was worried you would freak out and try to defy fate in an attempt to keep him safe…”

“Me? Defy fate in order to protect Adrien?” Marinette laughed nervously. “I would never!”

“Hmmm…” Tikki narrowed her eyes and checked to see if Marinette’s fingers were crossed behind her back. They weren’t, and Tikki relaxed. “Oh, I know now that you wouldn’t! You’re too smart to try something silly like that!”

“ _Now_ you know I’m smart? So… _before_ you thought I was stupid?”

“Before I thought you would let your feelings for Adrien cloud your judgement,” Tikki corrected. “Now I know that you’re capable of acknowledging that this situation is bigger than you and Adrien and your feelings for each other. Bigger than Paris, even!”

Marinette raised an eyebrow as she picked up her toothbrush and the toothpaste Tikki was so enamored with. “Bigger than Paris?”

Tikki watched enviously as she smeared some of the strawberry-flavoured paste onto her brush. “I _know_ I’ve told you before that Yin and Yang are _both_ needed for balance. Without Chat Noir to balance out Ladybug, it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing consequences. You know that already.”

“Yes, I do.” That had been Tikki’s original explanation for why choosing a Chat Noir within a certain time frame was so important.

Marinette took her time brushing her teeth, and when she was finished, she said, “Hey, Tikki… I looked up the five Chinese elements last night, and they can either strengthen or weaken each other, right? Like, Fire strengthens Earth, which strengthens Metal, and so on. But at the same time, Fire weakens Metals, which weakens Wood, and so on…”

“I wouldn’t say it’s as simple as that, but you don’t need more than a general understanding of the concept. You didn’t need to look it up,” Tikki told her.

“I wanted to. And I was wondering, don’t we need _all_ the elements for balance, the same way both Yin and Yang are needed? Even if I team up with Chat Noir and we defeat Hawkmoth, won’t things still be out of balance? The butterfly kwami has been awake for months, and he’s tied to Metal, but the other elements have been missing all this time… Isn’t that a problem?”

“This is what I mean when I say you’re too smart!” Tikki swatted her shoulder playfully. “You’re exactly right, but the kwamis tied to the other four elements are in charge of taking care of that. You and I only have to worry about Hawkmoth.”

“Oh, is that all?” Marinette asked, a heavy dose of sarcasm in her tone. “We _only_ have to worry about the supervillain wreaking havoc on Paris.”

“MARINETTE! YOU’RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!” her mother called.

“I’M GOING, MOM!” Marinette burst out of the bathroom, grabbed her schoolbag, and kissed her mother on the cheek.

“Oh, sweetheart—”

Marinette didn’t listen. “Love you, Mom, bye!”

“Honey, you should really—” her father began, only to be interrupted by the sound of Marinette shoving the front door open.

“Love you, Dad, see you later!”

* * *

Halfway to school, Marinette realized her parents had been trying to tell her about the great glob of toothpaste that had fallen onto her shirt.

There was no time to go back, so she tried to minimize the damage as best she could. Once she got to school, she immediately sought out her best friend.

“Alya,” she hissed, latching onto Alya’s arm. “I spilled toothpaste on my shirt… You can’t tell, can you?”

Alya looked at Marinette with something like pity in her eyes.

Marinette bit at her fingernails. “Is it that bad?”

“Well, no,” Alya said slowly. “It’s just…you know you’re still wearing your pajamas, right?”

Marinette buried her face in her best friend’s shoulder and _screamed_.

* * *

Not being able to tell her best friend about anything to do with her double life was _annoying_. It was especially annoying when she desperately wanted advice on how to end things with the boy of her dreams but she couldn’t ask for it because as far as Alya knew, Marinette and Adrien had nothing romantic going on between them.

Heck, as far as _Adrien_ knew, Marinette and Adrien had nothing romantic going on between them. She could probably ask _him_ for advice on how to dump the boy of her dreams and he wouldn’t even realize she was talking about him.

She wasn’t going to do that, though. Even just thinking about talking to Adrien had her stomach churning; she doubted she could survive an actual conversation with him.

Which was maybe why Marinette dove under her desk the second Adrien walked through the classroom door.

She’d been in the middle of a discussion with Alya and Nino about last Friday’s physics homework, but Nino somehow took her weirdness in stride and greeted his best friend as if nothing had happened.

Alya did not take things in stride. “Girl, what are you _doing_ —” she hissed, kicking Marinette in the shins.

“Hey, Alya!” Adrien’s voice greeted cheerfully from somewhere close by. A second later Adrien’s shoes appeared in her line of vision, followed by his bag, and then his butt as he sat down in his seat.

Marinette’s brain shut down.

“Hey, Marinette!” Adrien’s hand was suddenly swinging back-and-forth in front of her face.

Alya kicked her again, and Marinette forced herself to give Adrien a clumsy high-five. That was all she could manage. If she opened her mouth right now she’d puke.

Adrien’s hand disappeared, satisfied with the acknowledgement.

“Alright, class, settle down now!” Mme. Bustier called out. “I’m taking attendance!”

Alya dragged Marinette out from under the desk so the teacher wouldn’t mark her as absent, then spent the rest of the period badgering her for an explanation via note-passing.

Neither Adrien nor Nino mentioned the incident. It was like they hadn’t noticed Marinette literally _dive under a desk_ to avoid Adrien, except they’d _definitely_ both noticed. She wasn’t so weird that they considered this normal behaviour for her, was she?

…Was she?

When she asked Alya in her next note, Alya very pointedly did not answer.

* * *

By the time she got home, Marinette was downright miserable. Adrien had looked so _happy_ the entire day. Humming to himself one minute, whistling the next, greeting everyone with a megawatt smile… She’d even caught him skipping on the way to lunch!

How was she supposed to stomp all over his happiness?

“By reminding yourself that it’s for his own safety—”

“That was a rhetorical question,” Marinette told Tikki. “I’ll do it tonight, but give me a few hours to mope around, alright?”

“I’m pretty sure you’ve been doing that non-stop since yesterday afternoon, but okay.”

Marinette was too miserable to think up a proper comeback, so she resorted to being petty instead. “I’m going to bake cookies to make myself feel better… I _was_ going to give you some, but now I’m not.”

“Marinette!” Tikki wailed.

“No, no. Since I’ve been moping around so much, I _clearly_ need them more than you do.”

“I’m sorry!”

“I don’t believe you!” Marinette said, sticking her tongue out at her kwami. Tikki responded by throwing a pillow at her.

It hit her right in the face. Miraculously, Marinette felt better than she had all day.

* * *

In retrospect, bringing Adrien flowers seemed kind of dumb. What was she supposed to do, shove them at him and say, “So, I’m dumping you, but here’s some flowers! I know how you like flowers, that makes up for kissing you and then dumping you 48 hours later, right?”

Unfortunately, this realization only occurred to her _after_ she’d tapped on his balcony door. Although if he was sleeping, she might have time to—

Unfortunately, Adrien did not seem to have been sleeping, because he was at his balcony door and wrenching it open before she could even blink.

“ _Ladybug_.” He said her name like it was the most beautiful word he knew, staring into her eyes for several long moments. Then his eyes zeroed in on the flowers before she could drop them, or hide them behind her back, or just _get rid of them_ somehow—

“Are those for me?” he asked, and the shy little grin he gave her as he spoke made her knees go weak.

She shoved the flowers at him. “Um… Yes.”

He took them carefully and pressed his nose to the petals to breathe in the scent. “They smell beautiful. Did you buy these, or…?”

“No, I grew them. On my ter— In my garden!” she said, switching to a lie mid-sentence. Plenty of people grew plants up on their terrace, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

“I’m gonna go put these in a vase with water,” he decided. He reached out his free hand and tentatively curled his fingers around hers. “Please come in?”

“Okay,” she whispered, and he tugged her inside.

* * *

“I don’t have any vases in my room,” Adrien concluded after a few minutes of searching. He held up a tall drinking glass that he’d filled a quarter of the way with water, slipped the flowers inside, and set the glass on his bedside table. “This’ll have to do for now, I can get a real vase in the morning.”

“Yeah, I’m…” Ladybug shifted her weight from her right leg to her left. “I’m sorry to visit so late.”

“What? No, no! You’re my friend, you can visit anytime,” he told her, and his earnest smile was like a punch in the gut.

At school, she’d felt nauseous at the sight of his smile. Now she just felt guilty, and tired, and _sad_.

She’d been thinking so much about the kisses they’d shared, but what she remembered now was _why_ she’d first kissed him. Because she’d seen how scared he was to lose his friends, and she’d wanted to reassure him somehow that he wouldn’t lose her.

She couldn’t have been more wrong about that.

“Adrien, listen, I…” She took a deep breath. “I—”

His smile was fading, and her mind was scrambling through all the words she’d practiced in front of her bathroom mirror, trying to find the ones that wouldn’t break his heart.

There weren’t any.

“I found out a little more about the person behind these attacks…”

He looked confused now, but more alert, too, and she almost laughed. It was just like Adrien to be so determined to help even if he didn’t quite understand what was going on.

“And they’re— They’re a lot more dangerous than I thought. More dangerous to…the people around me,” she said slowly. “To you, specifically.”

She could see the realization setting in. “I’m guessing you’re not here to hang out,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“No, I’m not. Adrien, I can’t see you anymore,” she blurted out. “I can’t come to your house and you can’t help me during akuma attacks, you probably shouldn’t even look at me and—”

“I can’t make any promises. It’s kinda hard to _not_ look at you when you’re just so…you,” he said, and she got the feeling he wasn’t just talking about her physical appearance.

Ladybug prayed her mask covered up the flush in her cheeks. “You’re not making this easy.”

“I don’t see any way this _could_ be easy,” Adrien confessed, his shoulders slumping. “I don’t think it’s _supposed_ to be easy.”

“Maybe it’s not,” she agreed softly.

“So, those flowers you brought…” His lips were turning up at the corners in a reluctant grin.

Ladybug tugged on her pigtails and bit back a wince. “Ummmmm.”

“Ah, apology flowers.” Adrien nodded at her, still grinning despite everything. “I’m trying to tell myself that isn’t cute, but it’s not working.”

“I’m trying to tell myself _you’re_ not cute, but it’s _really_ not working,” she countered with an indignant huff, yanking on her pigtails again. “Stop being cute, please.”

He looked at her thoughtfully and said, “I’ll try… If you’ll do something for me in return.”

Ladybug blinked at him.

* * *

“Oh, wow,” Adrien whispered, his eyes filled with wonder as he took in the view.

Ladybug smiled. “Paris at night is really something, huh? Especially from the top of the Eiffel Tower.”

“I think the stop at Notre Dame was my favourite part of this tour. I’ve always liked Notre Dame, I even dream about it sometimes.”

“I’d say you're a nerd, but I used to dream about the Louvre so I don’t have much room to talk.” Of course, her dreams had been Tikki trying to communicate with the future Ladybug and reveal the location of the earrings, but still.

“Hey, Ladybug…” Adrien turned his eyes away from the sleeping city to look at her. “Even if we can’t be friends…is it okay if you’re still my friend anyways?”

“As long as you’re still mine.”

* * *

Adrien was so tired when they got back to his room that she had to help him into his bed, completely forgoing pajamas.

“I wish you didn’t have to leave me, Bug,” he mumbled as she tucked him in. “I hate it when people leave.”

Ladybug brushed his bangs out of his eyes. Leaned down. Kissed his forehead. “I know you do.”

“I know,” she repeated, staring up at her ceiling an hour later, unable to fall asleep. “I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will go to my grave insisting that if Ladrien started dating, she'd bring him flowers all the time and give him just as many forehead kisses as he gives her. Honestly all the love square dynamics would probably involve them both giving each other lots of forehead kisses. 
> 
> Anyways, next chapter, Adrinette awkwardness with Marinette totally oblivious to the fact that Adrien is completely aware that she dumped him as her superhero alter-ego. Also, Marinette tries to focus on her mission again because the solstice is just around the corner and Hawkmoth might remember that he's evil and he should do evil stuff instead of leaving his arch nemesis to angst over the state of her love life in peace.


	14. The Calm

Marinette walked into school the next day determined to be normal. No diving under desks today, no avoiding Adrien at all. She could do this. She could put her guilt and her awkwardness aside for Adrien’s sake. He’d already lost one friend, and she wasn’t going to let him lose another.

Bolstered by her internal pep-talk, Marinette marched into the classroom with Alya at her side only to find Adrien already sitting at his desk, staring down at his hands absently as Nino tried to engage him in conversation.

“Hey, boys!” Alya greeted easily. She nudged Marinette towards her seat, and Marinette could tell she was trying to prevent another incident like yesterday’s.

“Hey, Nino,” Marinette said as she sat down, gathering all her courage for the next part. “H— Hey, Adrien.”

“What’s up, Alya, Marinette!” Nino turned around in his chair and gave them both high fives.

“Hey, girls,” Adrien said, throwing them both a tired smile over his shoulder. Then he went back to staring at his hands.

Alya shot Nino a questioning look, but he just shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

Marinette sank lower in her seat and seriously considered buying a trash bag to wear over her head.

* * *

_Operation: Behave Like a Normal Person Around Adrien_ ( _Operation: Normal_ for short) was not going well, but neither was it going badly.

It was simply…not going. At all. Adrien had been inexplicably absent during morning recess and had gone home for lunch, and chatting with friends during class could earn you a detention (unless you were Chloe).

Not that that stopped Alya.

“Hey,” she hissed during physics. “You wanna tell me what’s going on?”

Marinette stared at her blankly.

Alya scowled back and poked her with a pencil. “Don’t play innocent with me! Lover Boy Number One has been sneaking looks at you _all day_. Sad, puppy dog eyed looks.”

“Lover Boy Number One?” Marinette repeated. What on earth…?

“What, do you think he should be number two?” Alya suddenly stopped scowling and went into her ‘analyzing the facts’ mode, failing to notice Mme. Mendeleiev glaring at them. “Chronologically speaking, he _did_ seem to develop feelings for you _after_ Nathanael did, but in terms of how serious those feelings are, I really think Adrien’s got Nath beat by a landslide. Plus I figured Adrien should be number one since he’s first in your heart…or at least higher up then Nathanael, since I suppose your mysterious Romeo or Juliet has the top spot when it comes to romance—”

“Alya,” Marinette interrupted in a whisper, shooting a nervous smile at the teacher. “I love you, but what are you talking about? What language are you even speaking right now?”

Alya just stared at her for a full thirty seconds before finally saying, “One you’ve never heard of, since you need to apply basic observation and reasoning skills to learn it, and those are clearly out of your ability range.”

Marinette opened her mouth to fire back a retort, but the teacher chose that moment to bark at them to pay attention to their problem sets.

She settled for pouting instead.

* * *

The last class of the day was literature, and Mme. Bustier informed them that she was assigning them a project to do in pairs.

“Which I will choose!” she added, and the class let out a collective groan. She ignored this and instead handed out the instructions. “Each team is going to choose a book we’ve covered this term and prepare a five to ten minute presentation comparing the book to the film adaptation.”

Adrien had been unusually quiet all day, so Marinette was surprised when he raised his hand.

“Yes, Adrien?”

“Some of those books have more than one movie based off of them,” he said. “Are we only allowed to compare them to the adaptation we watched in class, or can we compare them to another version?”

“Good question, Adrien. Stick to the version we watched in class, that way everyone will be able to follow along.”

Marinette barely heard the teacher’s answer. She was too busy praying to every higher power she could think of: _Please don’t let her pair me with Adrien, please don’t let her pair me with Adrien, please don’t let her—_

“As for the teams, if you’re in an odd row, turn around and look at the person behind you. That’s who you’ll be working with,” the teacher announced.

How could Mme. Bustier do this to her? Didn’t she see how on-edge Marinette was? Couldn’t she just be straightforward instead of talking in riddles—

Adrien turned around in his seat to look at her.

Marinette blinked at him.

“Partners?” he said with a weak smile.

She rearranged the teacher’s words in her head, trying to add up the pieces into an explanation that made sense. Marinette was directly behind Adrien… Who was in the first row… Which was an odd row… And people in odd rows were supposed to work with the person directly behind them… Which meant…

“Partners,” she echoed faintly, reminding herself that it could be worse. She could’ve been in Mylene’s seat, stuck working with Chloe.

And besides, she and Adrien were friends, right? Friends were excited to work together!

“Partners!” she exclaimed, holding her hand up for a fist bump.

Adrien froze.

Wait… Oh, SH— ABORTABORT _ABORTABORT **ABORT**_ —

Adrien bumped his knuckles against hers, and his smile was a little wider.

Marinette grinned in relief.

(She was still considering that trash bag, though.)

* * *

Working on the project with Adrien helped more than she had expected. She’d thought maybe this level of interaction was something she’d need to gradually work her way up to, but it turned out plunging in headfirst was the way to go. She was still _off_ around him, but she no longer panicked if he so much as looked at her.

As for Adrien, his mood improved within a couple of days, though sometimes he would just stare off into the distance, lost in thought, a wistful expression on his face. He still seemed a little subdued around her, but she chalked that up to him being thrown off by the fact that _she_ was uneasy around him.

At any rate, Marinette had made her choice where Adrien was concerned and now she had to focus on something else: her duty.

She had less than three weeks now to find Chat Noir. Not _a_ Chat Noir, but _the_ Chat Noir. The One True Chat Noir.

One specific person in a city of over _two million people_.

The more she thought about it, the closer she got to hyperventilating.

“This person _is_ in Paris, right?” Marinette asked Tikki, desperate for reassurance. 

“Yes, they are,” Tikki promised.

Marinette studied her warily, not sure she could believe that.

“I know I kept things— _important_ things—from you, and that was a mistake. I don’t expect earning your trust back to be easy,” Tikki said, antennas drooping. “But—”

“I _do_ trust you, Tikki,” Marinette interrupted, trying to slow her breathing. “I trust that you’re trying to do what’s best for me, it’s just that I don’t believe you’re always right about what that is. So I can’t trust you to tell me everything I need to know, not anymore.”

“We could start with what you _want_ to know?” Tikki offered with a timid smile. “If it’s something I can’t answer, I’ll try my best to explain why.”

“Okay,” Marinette said after several minutes of careful thought. “How do you know this person is in Paris?”

“Because _you’re_ in Paris,” Tikki answered immediately. “Fate or chance, Ladybug and Chat Noir almost always turn up in the same place.”

“ _Almost_ always?”

“I _know_ Chat Noir is in Paris. Whoever they are, Plagg has been communicating with them for the past two weeks through their dreams, trying to lead them closer to the stone. Just like I did with you.”

“And you can sense that?” Marinette asked, trying not to get her hopes up.

“Yes, but not strongly enough to pinpoint who’s receiving the dream messages.” Tikki noticed her crestfallen expression. “That’s actually a good thing! If _I_ can’t sense who Plagg is directing his magic at, there’s no way Hawkmoth’s kwami can.”

A smile crept its way onto Marinette’s face. “Because you’re more in tune with Plagg than Hawkmoth’s kwami is? Because Plagg, who you insisted was _insufferable_ , is your other half?”

Tikki groaned, but she refrained from teasing Marinette back. “Yes, yes. Now, what else did you want to know?”

“Can you give me a general idea of where in Paris Chat Noir is?” Because if Tikki couldn’t…then Marinette had a borderline impossible task ahead of her.

“Yes, I can. It’s someone in your area, and they go to your school—they got a message the other day during morning recess, and we were close enough that I could tell they were somewhere in the building.”

“Must’ve been having a catnap, I guess,” Marinette mused, and then a horrible thought occurred to her. “There’s no way it could be a _teacher_ , is there?”

Tikki giggled at the appalled look on Marinette’s face. “I really doubt it. Ladybug and Chat Noir are supposed to be on even ground. An age gap of more than two or three years…is _very_ unlikely. I’ve suspected from the beginning that it would be someone in your class.”

“And that’s why you went along with all my investigating.” Marinette poked Tikki with her index finger and glowered. “Would’ve been very useful to know all of this _five months ago_.”

“The past is the past,” Tikki said sagely, even as she eyed Marinette’s finger with reproach. “We can only move forward.”

“Unless I fail to protect Chat and then Hawkmoth takes over the world…”

“Which you _won’t_.”

“I guess I better find out who it is, then.” Marinette sighed. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll fall asleep in the middle of class…”

* * *

No one fell asleep in class at any point during the next week, though Alix almost dozed off during literature the day of their presentations. Marinette couldn’t really blame her. Alix and Sabrina had gone first, and then had to sit through six back-to-back powerpoints.

“Couldn’t Plagg just send _you_ a dream message telling you who Chat Noir is?” Marinette asked TIkki hopefully, and Tikki shook her head.

“No. Communicating with other kwamis while we’re trapped in the stones is very dangerous for us. We only do it in extreme cases like when Hawkmoth got hold of the butterfly Miraculous.”

At least Tikki was right about it not being a teacher. Marinette got sent to the principal’s office one day for being late to class too many times in a row, and she managed to trick Principal Damocles into revealing that every adult who worked at the school was late to their job every once in a while because all of them lived in a different part of the city, including him.

“So none of them are within your magic-sensing range or whatever,” Marinette concluded after she got home from detention.

Tikki suggested she find out if any of her classmates lived outside her area. “I know Alya lives close by, but what about Alix, Nino, Rose, and Nathanael?”

“Nino doesn’t live around here, and I’m not sure about the others. I’ve been to Alix’s house before, but that was years ago and I think she’s moved since then.” Marinette frowned. “Chloe is practically my next-door neighbour…”

Tikki waved her arm dismissively. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about the people you’ve already crossed off your list. You have good instincts, Marinette. If you thought they weren’t Chat Noir material before, I’m sure you were right.”

Marinette…very much doubted that. She’d believed there were only two Miraculous stones, she’d believed she got to choose her own partner, and she’d believed Adrien was the right choice. She’d been wrong about the first two things, and she was more than likely wrong about the third.

Still, she was running out of time, and she wanted to believe she’d been on the right track with her narrowed down list. “Okay, but I’m not sure I can just ask my classmates where they live without a reason… Especially Nathanael, he’d probably be really creeped out.”

Tikki offered her a supportive pat on the shoulder. “It’s a good thing you’re so creative!”          

* * *

“And this is for charity?” Alix asked suspiciously, the tip of her pen hovering over the clipboard.

“Yes!” Marinette jiggled her box of pink-frosted cupcakes enticingly. “Every euro goes to breast cancer research!”

“Fine.” Alix scrawled her name below Rose’s, dug through her pockets, and flicked a coin into the metal tin on Marinette’s desk. “I’m not putting my address down, though. Isn’t my phone number enough?”

“It’s so we can send you a bracelet as thanks!” ‘We’ being Marinette, who’d spent all weekend crafting pink bracelets while her wonderful, generous parents baked the cupcakes for her.

“Well, what if I don’t want a bracelet?” Alix tried to hand her the clipboard.

“Of course you want a bracelet,” Marinette said aggressively, pushing the clipboard back towards Alix. “It’s free, and it’s to raise awareness.”

“But I already have a breast cancer awareness T-shirt,” Alix protested. “You see me wear it every Wednesday! And I have a button that’s always pinned on my bag, and I _dyed my hair pink_ —”

Marinette stopped shoving the clipboard at her. She thought of how the drastic change in hair colour had occurred not long after Alix’s mother had passed away, and wondered if maybe this was more personal for Alix than she ever would’ve thought.

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” she said, smiling softly. “Enjoy your cupcake!”

Alix took the dessert and walked away, frowning.

She came back three minutes later, her pen clenched in her fist, and waited impatiently for Nino to finish writing down his name and contact info.

“Give me the clipboard,” she said as soon as Nino had turned back around in his chair to wolf down his cupcakes.

“But—”

Alix scowled at her. “I changed my mind, okay? I want one of your dumb bracelets after all.”

“I didn’t mean to guilt you into—”

Alix ripped the clipboard out of her hands, scribbled on it, then slammed it down on Marinette's desk.

Marinette stared.

“What?” Alix crossed her arms defensively.

“Here,” Marinette said, handing her another cupcake.

“But—”

“Just take the dumb cupcake, Alix,” Marinette teased, pulling a euro out of her purse. She held the coin up for Alix to see, then dropped it in the collection tin. “It’s on me.”

Alix shifted uncomfortably. Her family was well-off, and Marinette knew the weekly allowance she got from her father probably would’ve been more than enough to buy the entire box of cupcakes.

Still, Alix recognized the silent apology for what it was, and in the end she only smiled and said, “I better not get any ads in my mailbox.”

* * *

“Thanks, Nath!” Marinette said, beaming as Nathanael dropped a euro into the tin.

“No problem,” he said, his ears turning a baffling shade of red as he shuffled back to his desk with a cupcake.

“What’s all this?”

Marinette whipped around. “Adrien!  I thought you had a lunchtime photo-shoot?”

“It started raining halfway through, so they decided to cancel it,” he said, grimacing down at his soaking wet shoes, though other than that he seemed perfectly dry. He glanced at her cupcakes and then pouted at her. “I checked the cafeteria first, but no one was there… I guess know why, now.”

“Hey, I was gonna save you one,” she insisted.

“ _Only_ one?”

Marinette couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “You can have more if you want, but they’re a euro each.”

He took out his wallet and inspected its contents, frowning and muttering to himself inaudibly. After a full minute he pulled out a banknote and presented it to her with a triumphant flourish.

His audience could not have been less impressed. “You want change, right?”

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “They were supposed to feed me after the shoot, so I didn’t bring a lunch…”

“Ten cupcakes is not a lunch, Adrien!”

“Oh, just feed the boy, Marinette!” Alya called from the other end of the classroom. She’d been chatting with Kim and Max, both of whom backed Alya up.

“Feed him!” they chanted.

The entire class joined them, except for Chloe who shoved a banknote at Marinette and snatched five cupcakes from the box, loudly declaring that she had to taste-test them before one could be allowed anywhere near her precious Adrikin’s mouth.

“FEED HIM!”

Marinette pushed the box towards Adrien with a defeated groan.

He smiled at her charmingly. “Thanks!”

“Whatever, hot stuff,” she grumbled under her breath. “Just eat your cupcakes.”

* * *

 “—and then he just stuffed them into his mouth one after the other, just because Kim dared him to! I thought he was gonna throw up!” Marinette ranted to Tikki later. "I thought  _I_ was going to throw up!"

Tikki just grinned at her. “Think of it this way, you have all the info you need _and_ you raised money for the hospital’s breast cancer research fund!”

“Yeah.” Marinette frowned down at the list of addresses. “I feel like a stalker.”

“It’s not like you’re going to use the information to invade their privacy. You can even tear the sheet up after you send out the bracelets if you want. Although…” Tikki glanced around shiftily. “If Ladybug just _happened_ to pass by their houses late at night—”

“I am not creeping on my classmates while they’re sleeping!”

“I’m just saying, it _could_ potentially help me pinpoint where Plagg’s magic is—”

“NO, TIKKI.”

* * *

“Alright,” Marinette said, scratching out one final name. “Alya and Alix both live close by…and Nino, Rose and Nathanael live in a totally different area.”

Adrien lived _very_ close by, but all the little signs that pointed towards him clashed with her doubts in herself and her instincts.

The more she turned it over in her head, the more she doubted _everything_. What if it was him, and she couldn’t convince Hawkmoth that it wasn’t? Even if she could protect Adrien until he got the stone, was there any hope if Hawkmoth knew who Chat Noir was behind the mask and could target him at any time?

Hawkmoth hadn’t sent out a single akuma since Mother Nature, and in other circumstances that would’ve been a relief.

In these circumstances, it was downright _terrifying_.

Breaking up with Adrien still felt like it had been the right thing to do, but leaving him in the dark? That she’d been regretting ever since she’d left his house that night.

“Alya and Alix… Only two names left!” Tikki said, too excited to notice Marinette’s inner struggle.

“Right,” Marinette said, her chest tightening. “Only two names…and only four days.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how this chapter turned into Marinette coming up with an elaborate scheme to find out where each of her classmates lives... I promise she tears up that stalker sheet as soon as she's sent out the bracelets.
> 
> (I dunno where that stuff about Alix and her mother came from... I don't really think Alix dyed her hair pink for any reason other than teenage rebellion and just...wanting to have pink hair.) 
> 
> Next chapter, Hawkmoth is going to emerge from his chrysalis as the not-so beautiful butterfly he was always meant to be. It's okay though, what's inside is what counts, and for Hawkmoth that's new potential for evil! And maybe some new lighting and decor for his emo lair if he's feeling really ambitious. I know I would be if I was finally on the verge of outmaneuvering the fifteen year old that had been kicking my ass for six months. (Plus. I get to struggle with writing action scenes. I'm just... so... excited...) (I'M SUPER EXCITED FOR THE NEW EP TONIGHT THOUGH PLEASE LET THERE BE LADRIEN IN IT PLEASE.)


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